CUA has enjoyed a strong lift in new home loans and a rise in half year profit, but its boss says the result was held back by restrictions on investor lending.
Over the six months to December, Australia's largest credit union grew its home loans by 9.2 per cent annualised, greater than the industry-wide rate of 7.4 per cent annualised.
CUA chief executive Rob Goudswaard says the result was exceptional given headwinds from regulatory restrictions on investor lending.
"We have had to turn away many of our customers who wanted investor loans and some of them have had to go somewhere else and they have taken their owner occupier loan with them," Mr Goudswaard said.
"We did $1.5 billion (worth of new loans) in the six months to the end of December.
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"I reckon we have missed out on another 10 per cent."
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority introduced measures to curb investor borrowing in late December, including a 10 per cent annual growth limit on residential property investor lending.
The group's net profit rose nine per cent to $28.05 million for the half largely due to more loans and increased interest rates.
Total loans increased 4.2 per cent to $10.83 billion and net interest income was up 5.7 per cent to $113.75 million due to strong lending in fiscal 2015.
CUA had a record year of new lending in fiscal 2015, with more than $3.35 billion in new loans, however its full year profit of $48.8 million was slightly down due to higher payouts from its health insurance business.
Mr Goudswaard said he hoped the payouts won't be as great in the current financial year but even so, he said CUA Health had strong growth and continued to make a profit.
He expects the total group's annual profit to be better than the previous year's.
The credit union, based in Brisbane, is owned by its 430,000 customers, with profits reinvested back into the business.
