The Rock Building Society

About The Rock Building Society Home Loans

Background

The Rock Building Society Limited was established in 1967 and is based in Rockhampton, Central Queensland. It is a publicly owned company, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX code "ROK"), with a market capitalisation of approximately $56.7 million and more than $1.15 billion in assets under management.

The Rock is a home loan specialist, offering superior personal service at a very affordable price. We can react quickly to changing customer needs, and we empower our people to make decisions. This strategy has seen the company expand its lending operations outside Central Queensland, and now extends around Australia from Port Douglas to Perth.

The Rock fund lending from a combination of savings and term deposit accounts, and wholesale funding using securitisation.

The majority of The Rock depositors are based in Central Queensland, where The Rock run an extensive network of service outlets including 9 branches and 9 agencies. However, technology means that the greatest growth in The Rock's depositor base is now coming from the metropolitan markets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Customers can have their pay credited electronically to their account with The Rock, and can access their funds using ATM, eftpos terminals, telephone banking, internet banking, by branch or cheque.

The Rock securitisation programme, arranged through SG Australia, enables The Rock to raise funds by selling home mortgages into Special Purpose Securitisation Vehicles which in turn issues notes to investors (the senior notes have been assigned AAA rating by international rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Moody's). To date, The Rock have raised approximately $1.3 billion through this funding mechanism.

Financial Strength

The Rock has a very strong balance sheet. All The Rock loans are secured by first mortgage over residential real estate and fully insured against any loss with recognised mortgage insurance companies with credit ratings of AA- or better. The rest of The Rock assets predominantly comprise bank bills and deposits with other Approved Deposit-taking Institutions (ADI's) supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (which supervises banks and other ADI's) requires The Rock to hold a capital buffer to protect the interests of all depositors. This is known as the "Capital Adequacy Ratio", and The Rock is required to maintain this ratio at 8% or above. At 30th June 2004 our Capital Adequacy Ratio stood at 11.3%.

Services

The Rock is a provider of retail financial services, specialising in home loans, savings and deposit accounts, financial planning, business banking and insurance brokerage.

The Rock Building Society Home Loans