In April 2007, the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) joined Abacus (registered Abacus Australian Mutuals – Association for Building Societies and Credit Unions) –bringing all of Australia’s credit unions and mutual building societies together into a single industry association with one united industry voice. Abacus then represented 150 institutions – 100% of the Australian industry.

Abacus changed its name to the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA), a name which recognised the emergence of mutual banks, on 1 July 2013.

COBA’s mission is “to advocate, champion, connect, strengthen and evolve, so that customer-owned banks can continue to flourish long into the future”.

It does this via “expert advisory and support services, marketing and communications support, industry liaison and engagement, and education and training. COBA also has a dedicated Financial Crimes team that supports the customer-owned banking sector’s financial crime disruption and response capability”. Nearly all of Australia’s customer owned banks (mutual banks and credit unions) are members of COBA.

Our collection of COBA records include published reports, industry newsletters and correspondence as well as promotional photographs and videos.