IMB Building Society

About IMB Building Society

IMB was formed in 1880 as a mutual building society to provide housing finance and deposit account facilities for the growing population of the Illawarra region of NSW and has traded continuously since that time. IMB currently has 34 branches located from the Victorian border to Sydney and west to the ACT and representation in all other mainland Australia states.

In 1989, IMB issued ten million one dollar permanent shares which are bought and sold on IMB's independent share trading system. On October 26, 1999 IMB implemented the resolution adopted at IMB's annual general meeting on September 22, 1999 to split each share into two IMB shares. One of the main benefits of the split was to ensure the affordability of each IMB share, creating greater opportunity for all IMB members and other members of the community to participate and invest in the future prosperity of IMB.

IMB has been regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority since July 1, 1999. These government bodies regulate all banks, building societies and credit unions in Australia, and similar prudential standards exist for each of these financial institutions.

In recognition that the dominant purpose of IMB’s activities is to provide benefits to its members rather than to generate a profit, IMB established the IMB Community Foundation in 1999. Since the Foundation’s establishment, IMB has provided grants totalling $2,500,000 for application in projects for the benefit of the general community.

Since 2000, IMB has embarked on an expansion strategy focusing on both the establishment of operations in new geographical areas in the ACT and, more recently, Victoria and Western Australia and diversification of its product offering. A joint venture for the provision of financial planning services was established during the 2001 financial year.

IMB's national presence was further strengthened during 2002 with the acquisition of Victorian based Australian Unity Building Society Limited. IMB also entered into a strategic alliance with Australian Unity Limited, providing representation in the Victorian, Adelaide and Brisbane marketplaces offering deposit and lending products and transaction facilities.

Since 2000 IMB has embarked on a strategy of moving residential mortgage-backed and more recently, commercial mortgage-backed loans off-balance sheet to both improve its capital adequacy ratio and to provide funds to enable further expansion of IMB. In May 2003 IMB established a master trust structure enabling separate series trusts to be established to acquire both residential and commercial mortgage-backed loans from IMB. The first such series trust, the Illawarra Series 2003-1 Trust, acquired it’s first tranche of residential mortgage-backed loans in July 2003. In March 2004 a new series trust, known as the Illawarra Series 2004-1 Trust was established to acquire commercial mortgage-backed loans from IMB.

In June 2004, IMB was assigned an investment grade rating of BBB- long term and A-3 short term by ratings agency Standard and Poor’s. IMB is the first Australian building Society or credit union to have been assigned an investment grade rating.

IMB is one of Australia’s largest building societies.

IMB Building Society Home Loans

IMB Building Society Commercial Property Loans