Record profit for Heritage Bank

Heritage Bank delivered a record after-tax net profit of $45.04 million in 2017/18, while continuing to invest in evolving the business to meet the demands of an increasingly digital world, according to CEO Peter Lock.

This represents an increase of 13.7% on the $39.62 million in net profit recorded last year.

Mr Lock said the solid overall results were achieved at the same time as Heritage had invested significantly in an ongoing digital transformation program.

He also added, "at the same time, we remain absolutely committed to maintaining our branch network, though we continually review the location of branches to ensure we maximize benefits to our customers. That's why next month we are opening a brand new branch at Coomera, while we recently closed a branch at Toombul."

According to Mr Lock, Canstar research found that Heritage customers were more than $68 million better off in 2017/18 by banking with them rather than the major banks.

Heritage Bank loan volumes were down 27.4% to $1.736 billion in 2017/18, but this reflected a "conscious decision to moderate lending".

Mr Lock concluded by noting, "we scored the highest customer satisfaction rating of any bank in the country in the 2017 JD Power Australian Retail Banking Satisfaction Study – the second year in a row we were ranked the best in Australia."