Yorkshire Building Society welcomed a delegation of visitors from one of Australia’s largest mutual financial institutions.
The group from Teachers Mutual Bank, based in Homebush, near Sydney, met senior figures from the Bradford-based building society.
They listened in on calls made to the Yorkshire Drive contact centre to hear how the society responds to mortgage enquiries before discussing issues around mutuality in both institutions.
Yorkshire Building Society chairman John Heaps, chief executive Chris Pilling and executive director Andy Caton and were joined by Steve Round, chairman of Ecology Building Society, to welcome the six-strong group.
Mr Heaps was also presented with a gift of aboriginal artwork by Teachers Mutual Bank chief operating officer Craig McMahon.
Andy Caton, executive director at the Yorkshire Building Society, which traces its roots to Huddersfield, said: “It was fascinating to share views on developing member-owned organisations and the distinctive qualities and challenges we face.
“We are very proud to have been able to share our insight and experience and we hope to keep the conversation going.
“As organisations we are separated by 10,500 miles, but our joint values make us feel much closer than that.”
Craig McMahon, chief operations officer at Teachers Mutual Bank, said: “Teachers Mutual Banks’ success over 50 years has been built on a strong service culture and putting our members first. It was pleasing to know the success of Yorkshire Building Society has been based on similar values.”
Teachers Mutual Bank was established in 1966 and has more than 170,000 members and assets of £3bn.
Yorkshire Building Society is the second-largest building society in the UK with 219 branches, 98 agencies and assets of £39.6bn.
It employs 4,600 people and has 3.3m customers.
