With both banking organisations using Melbourne-based software Ultradata, the software firm put the two organisations in touch and a visit was organised to teach the Tonga bankers about the latest upgrades.
Staff at CMCU were teaching a group of five, including TDB’s chief technology officer Havila Movete, the ins and outs of the latest developments in the software, which the Yarrawonga organisation has been using for more than 20 years.
“Sharing their knowledge and experiences is fantastic - coming all the way from our little nation in the Pacific to the border of NSW and Victoria is a once in a lifetime trip,“ TDB chief technology officer Havili Movete said.
“Even though the CMCU system is ahead of ours, most of the base functions are the same so we found there are a lot of areas that will improve our operations and we look forward to implement these functionalities when we go back to Tonga.”
Tonga – which has a population of about 105,000 and is about 400km east of Fiji – is just in the early stages of adopting cards, ATMs and internet banking after previously relying on cheques.
“It’s our first time doing something like this and it’s been a lovely experience,” CMCU operations manager Sally Eales said.
“It’s a short stay and the idea is to learn best-practice. They’ve come all this way, and hopefully it has been worthwhile.
“They are just starting to get into internet banking, so we’ve been helping with things like security issues as well.”
The difference in wealth between the developing nation and Australia is reflected in the banking system, with both companies dealing with the same overall figures but TDB employing 150 staff across nine branches whereas the Yarrawonga mutual banking institution – whose members pooled assets passed $50m around 2008 – is just one branch with 11 staff.
Micro-loans are very common for the Tonga bank where people borrow amounts as small as $300-$400 for homes and rents, farming and other business ventures.
Ms Eales said the initiative fitted in with the credit union’s communal values, with CMCU regularly cooperating on shared projects with mutual banking peers such as Goulburn Murray Credit Union and BankWAW.
The Tonga team – which was headed by chief technology officer Havili Movete, who was educated at Charles Sturt University in Wagga - were focused on business during the flying visit from Tuesday to Saturday but had time to enjoy Stonegrill at ClubMulwala as well as a dinner at the Mulwala Water Ski Club.
