Laboratories Credit Union Limited

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Welcome to the Summer edition of LCU’s newsletter. I hope you had a very happy and relaxing Christmas/New Year break.

In early 2019 we launched the LCU Internet Banking App and this allows you to manage your LCU accounts and make payments on any device at any time of the day. This is in addition to our other digital banking capabilities such as Osko payments, SMS Alerts, ApplePay and GooglePay. We are thinking of running some information sessions at our head office at North Ryde, so if you are not using any of these facilities and would like to know more about them, please contact us at matthew@lcu.com.au to register your interest.

We ended 2019 with interest rates at the lowest level on record and it is anticipated that there may be another rate drop early in 2020. Although this ultra-low rate environment is good for home borrowers, it also presents challenges for your board and management as we seek to gain a fair balance between the needs of our borrowing and depositing members. With many LCU members either saving for their first home, or reliant on interest income in their retirement, we are very conscious that every fall in interest rates creates winners and losers.

Looking ahead to 2020, we will be undertaking a major upgrade to our banking system and internet banking interface. This is necessary to allow LCU to participate in the Open Banking regime that was legislated in 2019 by the Federal Government and is mandatory for all financial institutions in Australia.

Open Banking, or the Consumer Data Right, will allow the customers of any financial institution to access and securely share certain pieces of their own customer, account and transaction data with organisations that have been accredited by the customer, for services that are being provided to them. Some examples of these may be comparison sites, personal money management apps and other financial institutions. Banking is the first sector to be covered by the Consumer Data Right, with the telecommunications and energy sectors to follow.

In an effort to increase our membership numbers, in June 2019 we employed a dedicated business development manager – Sally Boswell. Sally’s role is to seek out and foster relationships with organisations that are related to CSIRO or in the STEM arena, looking for potential members with similar values as our existing member base. We welcome Sally to LCU. Once again, I wish all of our members a happy and prosperous New Year. Please feel free to contact us if we can help with your financial needs.

To read the entire LCU Summer Newsletter click here

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