It’s more than a bank. It’s where you belong

 

L-R Paul Ranson, CEO Bank of Us, Melina Morrison, CEO BCCM, the Hon Eric Abetz MP, Treasurer of Tasmania, Mark Mugnaioni, Group CEO RACT, and Paul Lupo, CEO St Lukes Health, at the Tasmanian Icons Breakfast.

 

At a breakfast at Parliament House in Hobart last week, our CEO Paul Ranson spoke alongside other Tasmanian leaders about the role of cooperatives and mutuals and how they contribute to Tasmania.  

 

We’re living through a period of sustained uncertainty.

Global events shift quickly. Decisions are made at scale, often far from the communities they affect. And for regional economies, those shifts can be felt more sharply - and more personally.

In that context, the question of how institutions are structured becomes more than an idea. It goes directly to the resilience of communities and economies. Across Australia, the customer-owned banking sector serves more than 5.4 million customers and holds around $196 billion in assets.

That’s not a niche. It’s a meaningful part of the financial system - quietly delivering stability, competition and trust.

At Bank of us, our structure is simple, but powerful. We are owned by our customers.

We serve around 37,000 customers across seven stores, from Wynyard through to Hobart, and manage more than $2.1 billion in assets on their behalf. And that creates a very different kind of organisation.

Because when your customers are your owners, your focus is anchored in place. In people. In the long term.

There’s no distance between the decisions you make and the communities they affect. No competing pull toward short-term returns at the expense of local outcomes. Instead, there is alignment.

And in uncertain times, alignment creates stability.

For us, that plays out in practical ways across Tasmania. It means maintaining a physical presence from the State's North-West through to Hobart - because in regional communities, access still matters, and relationships still matter.

It means the value we create stays here in Tasmania. Reinvested locally. Supporting Tasmanians - particularly when it comes to something as fundamental as home ownership.

It means working in partnership with others who are committed to the same long-term outcomes.

Of course, we must be financially sound - that is essential. But in a mutual model, financial strength is not an end in itself.

It is what enables resilience. The ability to continue to serve. To keep investing. To remain present, even when conditions are challenging.

Resilient organisations are built on trust - from customers, and from the people who work within them.

That is the quiet strength of the mutual model. It is not driven by scale for its own sake. Or by distance from the communities it serves. It is grounded in place. In relationships. In a long-term commitment to the people who depend on it.

And for regional communities like those across Tasmania, that matters. Because resilience isn’t just about weathering change. It’s about having institutions that are designed to stand with you through it.

For more than 150 years, Bank of us has been part of that story. A bank that belongs to Tasmanians. A bank that grows with them. A bank that stays.

And in an uncertain world, that sense of belonging - and that certainty of purpose - becomes more valuable than ever.

It’s more than a bank. It’s where you belong.