SYDNEY, Australia–A new Essential Research poll, commissioned by the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA), which is the primary trade association for credit unions in Australia, has found that most Australians would feel better about banking with a credit union.
The poll of 1,000 Australians found that 63% said they would prefer to bank with an organization that reinvests profits to benefit its customers/members and the community, rather than a for-profit bank.
One-in-four respondents also thought that investing profits in the community was very important when thinking about their banking.
“This latest research just reinforces what we already know about Australian consumers,” People’s Choice Credit Union Managing Director Peter Evers said in a statement. “People want their major consumer relationships, including those with our banks and financial institutions, to be responsible ones, with benefits that go beyond just themselves. We take our ‘green’ bags to the supermarket, we purchase carbon offsets when we fly, we buy fair trade coffee and we want our banks and financial institutions to give back to the community with the profits from our business,” he said.
Evers said People’s Choice invests 5% of pre-tax profits into the communities in which we operate – 10 times the 0.49% average contribution made by major Australian and New Zealand companies.