Former mortgages exec joins Defence Bank

Defence Bank has announced the appointment of Marnie Fletcher in the newly created role of chief member and growth officer, effective 23 February.

Reporting to Defence Bank CEO David Marshall in her role, Ms Fletcher leads the mutual bank's frontline teams and lending operations and member service divisions. These teams have a direct line to members, according to Defence Bank.

Ms Fletcher has 23 years of experience in banking across a range of financial institutions, and has worked with institutional and retail customers.

She was previously at ME Bank, where she held the role of general manager, mortgage distribution and led the mortgage lending division, which includes distribution channels of the broker, network (face to face), direct sales, relationship management, and two call centre teams.

She has also held the role of general manager, proprietary sales, and other roles at ME Bank.

Before joining ME Bank, she was regional general manager, retail banking at Westpac, and held various roles at ANZ for over 10 years, including distribution digital transformation project director, and district manager, retail banking.

Commenting on her appointment, Mr Marshall welcomed Ms Fletcher to the mutual bank.

“Marnie joins us at a great time, when we are delivering for members but want to do much more,” Mr Marshall said.

“Marnie has an enviable track record of member focused results and will help propel Defence Bank to be even more member and growth focused.

“Marnie will join a diverse and collaborative executive team who have delivered consistently high results for members in a rapidly changing and challenging environment.”

Ms Fletcher has spoken of her appointment to Defence Bank, stating that she was “incredibly excited to be joining the team”.

“In meeting our people, it is evident that our purpose of ‘serving those who protect us’ is a guiding light in how we make decisions, and I am thrilled to be working with such a passionate and amazing collective,” she said.

“As we move into the next phase of ‘normal’ and reset for growth beyond coronavirus, I am looking forward to helping shape the future of Defence Bank and how we continue to support our people and our members.”

Defence Bank’s half-year results for the 2021 financial year, which was released in February, had shown that loan funding had grown by 19 per cent, while deposits had jumped by 30 per cent.

[Related: Mutual bank appoints two new directors]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.