The bank announced the result yesterday afternoon, describing it as an “outstanding achievement”.

That assessment was based on there being a low cash interest rate for nearly the whole year.

“It was a tough year, with low interest rates pushing margins down and competition for loans fierce,” Hume Bank chairman Michael Gobel said.

“Despite this tough environment, assets were up almost $20 million.”

The reported after-tax profit for the 2013-14 financial year of $2.76 million is slightly lower than the $2.95 million achieved last year.

“A comparison of operating profit before the fair value adjustments arising from the revaluation of assets is a more accurate reflection of the results for the year,” Hume chief executive, Andrew Saxby said.

“The costs of converting to a bank were kept to a minimum due to the long lead time we had and also the efforts of the many people involved in the project.

“Replacement uniforms for staff were overdue, so it may not be fair to include them as a cost of becoming a bank — but that’s how we treated them.”

Operating profit before fair value adjustments was the same as the previous year — $4.25 million compared with $4.248 million.

Mr Gobel said the support Hume had received from the region over the past 59 years had allowed it to be successful.”

“As a community organisation, we operate for the benefit of those that bank with us — we don’t have shareholders, so we don’t pay dividends,” he said.

“We seek to make a level of profit that will allow us to secure our future.”

Through this year, Hume sought both member and APRA approval to become a bank and on July 1, Hume became only the third Australian bank based outside a capital city.

Hume also secured its future locally with the acquisition of part of the Baker Motors building.

“We are getting too big for our building and need to expand,” he said.