Our History

Our story began when a group of public-spirited citizens saw the need to provide housing finance by way of a co-operative venture and launched the Launceston Equitable Building and Investment Society in January 1870.

The cash taken at the first meeting totalled only $235 but the nine directors, chaired by the then Superintendent of Police, James Coulter, were delighted even though it would be 10 years before any of them received any remuneration.

The first loan for $400 was issued to James Brickhill for land in Brisbane Street between Margaret and Bourke Street and the second was a more substantial loan of $1000 to Gustavus Gabriel for a Wellington Street shop and house.

Along with helping people to own their own homes at a time when there was no public housing in Tasmania, the Society’s goal was to encourage thrift in a town where there were more pubs than churches. To reinforce these goals, staff were personally told in 1890 they should not indulge in the widespread practice of gambling and betting and a society advertisement in the 1943 Launceston Competition Program read “Houses are proof of the industry of man; ownership the proof of his thrift and enterprise”.

By the late 1980s big was seen as better for financial institutions and on November 1, Equitable Building Society and Bass Building Society merged to enable them to compete effectively and to provide a state-wide network of branches.

The amalgamation of the State’s oldest building society (Equitable) with the youngest and largest (Bass) to become the Bass and Equitable Building Society created the State’s largest non-bank financial institution with assets of more than $90 million.

In November 2001, Bass & Equitable, changed its name to B&E to mark a fresh image and marketing strategy for the Society. In part, the name change was a push for more of the youth and personal loan market, but the goal was also to drop the “building society” reference for the first time in the organisation’s long history to reflect the new broader focus of the company which by now offered a wide range of financial services including home and personal loans, business overdrafts, commercial loans, credit and debit cards, deposit and cheque accounts and BPAY.