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Westpac

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This article is about the bank. For the defunct airline, see Western Pacific Airlines. For the rescue helicopter, see Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter.
Westpac Banking Corporation
Company typePublic (ASX: WBC)
IndustryBanking
Founded1817
HeadquartersAustralia Sydney, Australia
Key people
  • David Morgan (CEO)
  • Ted Evans (Chairman)
    • ProductsPersonal Banking
    Business Banking
    Commercial Lending
    Personal Lending
    Home Mortgage Loans
    Share & Equity Management
    Revenue$18.1 billion AUD (2004)
    Number of employees
    		30,000 ref
    Websitewww.westpac.com.au
    www.westpac.co.nz

    Westpac Banking Corporation ASX: WBC NZX: WBC, usually called Westpac, is the fourth largest bank in Australia. Westpac has also been recognised by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index as the most sustainable bank in the world for the fifth year running. On Friday 17 August 2007, Gail Kelly announced her resignation as CEO of St. George Bank to take up the same position at Westpac from 2008. [1]

    Core Business Activities

    Westpac's core businesses consist of nine business units (five customer facing), through which it serves around 8.2 million customers. These business areas are—

    Consumer Financial Services (CFS)

    This includes deposit taking, transaction accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and other lending. Westpac is a major home loan provider and also serves the financial needs of business customers with a turnover of up to $20 million. Investment, superannuation and general and life insurance products are also sold through the branch network. In the past, CFS and BFS (see below) combined to form Business & Consumer Banking (BCB).

    Business & Consumer Banking (BFS)

    BFS provides banking services to small and medium enterprises.

    BT Financial Group (BT)

    BT is Westpac's wealth management division. This covers the asset accumulation, investment management and life insurance operations in Australia and New Zealand. Wealth Management designs, manufactures and services financial products to allow customers to create, manage and protect their wealth. It also includes managed investments, life insurance, superannuation and discount broking. There is also custody and settlement services to institutional customers and fund managers.

    Westpac Institutional Bank (WIB)

    This business offers financial services to the corporate and institutional customer base, helping and advising in the management of cash, funding, capital and market risk for enterprises and institutions in Australia and New Zealand.

    Westpac New Zealand

    In 1861 seven branches opened in New Zealand, starting with the name of the Bank of New South Wales. Some of the old buildings still stand, including one in Oamaru.

    Today this unit offers a whole range of consumer and corporate services to clients throughout New Zealand. It is the dominant provider of banking services to small to medium business and is the banker of the New Zealand government [2]. Currently Westpac is the largest bank in New Zealand with around 1.5 million customers, 3,000 shareholders and 196 branches nationwide.

    On September 29, 2006 Westpac was forced to pay NZ$5.1 million by the New Zealand Commerce Commission over hidden foreign transaction fees (most of the fine is reimbursement to affected customers). All other banks operating in New Zealand have either already been fined or are awaiting a court case. "Westpac to pay $5.1 million over credit card fees, Kiwibank joins list of companies facing charges". Commerce Commission. September 29, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-16.

    Naming Rights

    Business Technology Solutions and Services (BTSS)

    BTSS is Westpac's technology and services arm. It incorporates Westpac's internal IT business units, transformation teams, the bank's operations centres and other support services.

    Other Business Units

    The three remaining business units are Group Finance, People & Performance (Westpac's name for Human Resources), and Group Risk.

    ATM Alliance

    Westpac is a member of the Global ATM Alliance, a joint venture of several major international banks that allows customers of the banks to use their ATM card or check card at another bank within the Global ATM Alliance with no fees when traveling internationally. Other participating banks are Barclays (United Kingdom), Bank of America (United States), BNP Paribas (France), China Construction Bank (China), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Santander Serfin (Mexico) and Scotiabank (Canada).[1]

    Westpac Migrant Banking

    This unit of both the Australian and New Zealand Bank offers banking facilities to those migrating to either New Zealand or Australia. Bank accounts for migrants can be opened before people arrive in the country using their easy account opening process. Credit cards and mortgages can even be approved before arrival. Westpac Migrant Banking does have a representative office in London where accounts can be arranged, although the process allows the process to be done remotely from any country.

    Pacific Banking

    Westpac commenced operations in Fiji in 1901 and Papua New Guinea in 1910. Westpac now operates in seven south Pacific nations. This unit is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, and offers a wide range of financial service, including electronic banking (via online banking, ATMs and EFTPOS), deposit, loan, transaction accounts and international trade facilities to personal and business customers through a vast network of branches.

    Westpac Fiji

    Westpac Fiji is Westpac's Fijian operation. It is one of the largest banks in the country with a 40% market share.

    Offshoring

    On 14 September 2007 Westpac has announced to employees at the Concord Operational Centre that they have entered a contract to send their jobs to India. 25 jobs were be immediately lost under a contract signed with Genpact, an Indian based outsourcing provider, potentially along with sensitive customer data.[2]

    History

    In 1817, the Bank of New South Wales was founded in Sydney as the first bank in Australia. Edward Smith Hall was the first cashier and secretary[3]. Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, the Bank opened branches throughout Oceania, at Moreton Bay (Brisbane) in 1850, then in Victoria (1851), New Zealand (1861), South Australia (1877), Western Australia (1883), Fiji (1901), Papua New Guinea (1910) and Tasmania (1910).

    • 1927: BNSW acquired the Western Australian Bank.
    • 1931: It acquired the Australian Bank of Commerce, which had branches in both New South Wales and Queensland.
    • 1942: BNSW suspended operations in Papua New Guinea as the Japanese Army captured many of the towns in which it had branches and agencies, and bombed Port Moresby. It resumed operations in 1946.
    • 1970: It established a branch on Tarawa in Kiribati (ex-Gilbert Islands), which also took over the government savings bank.
    • 1971: It established a branch in the New Hebrides. The next year HSBC and Commercial Bank of Australia (see below) also established branches.
    • 1974: The Bank of New Zealand (20%), Westpac (20%), Bank of Hawaii (20%), and the Government of Tonga (40%) established The Bank of Tonga as a joint venture.
    • 1975: It incorporated its local business in Papua New Guinea as Bank of New South Wales(PNG).
    • 1977: BNSW formed a joint venture in Samoa with Bank of Hawaii, Pacific Commercial Bank, by buying into Pacific Savings and Loan Company (est. 1969), in which Bank of Hawaii had had an ownership interest since 1971.
    • 1982: BNSW merged with the Commercial Bank of Australia to form Westpac Banking Corporation.
    • 1984: The original agreement between BNSW and the government in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands expired and Westpac and the government of Kiribati formed Bank of Kiribati as a 51%-49% joint venture. Bank of Kiribati also fulfilled the functions of a reserve or central bank.
    • 1985: Westpac replaced Barclays Bank in the National Bank of Tuvalu (est. 1981) in Tuvalu (ex-Ellice Islands), taking 40% of the shares as well as a 10-year management contract.
    • 1988: Westpac acquired the European Pacific Banking Corporation in the Cook Islands and a HSBC subsidiary, the Solomon Islands Banking Corporation, which HSBC had established as a branch in 1973. Westpac also acquired HSBC's operations in Fiji and the New Hebrides, and established a branch in Niue that is the only bank in that country. (HSBC had established its branch in Fiji only some 18 months earlier.
    • 1990: Bank of New Zealand sold half its shares in Bank of Tonga to Westpac and half to Bank of Hawaii, giving each of them 30%. Westpac bought Banque Indosuez's operations in New Caledonia and Tahiti. (Banque de l'Indochine, which later merged into Banque Indosuez, had established itself in New Caledonia in 1888 and in Papeete, Tahiti in 1905. In both places Indochine functioned as the bank of issue until 1966-7.)
    • 1992: Westpac recorded a 1.6 billion dollar loss, which at the time, was the largest loss for an Australian corporation.
    • 1995: Westpac sold its shares in National Bank of Tuvalu to the government, which now wholly-owns the bank.
    • 1995: Westpac merged with Challenge Bank in Western Australia
    • 1996: Westpac Holdings NZ bought TrustBanks, a chain of regional banks owned by Community Trusts, for NZD1.2 billion to form NZ largest bank WestpacTrust. The bank had promised to keep the funding to Community Trusts flowing and to keep "Trust" in its name. However, Community Trust funding has slowed to a trickle, and in 2002 the bank quietly changed its name to Westpac. The merger of Westpac and Trustbank also saw the closure of many branches around New Zealand. In towns and cities where both Westpac and Trustbank existed branches were merged into a single branch, also many branches in rural areas and outer suburbs were closed down.
    • 1997: Westpac acquired Bank of Melbourne in Victoria, paying an estimated price in excess of A$1.4b. Although Westpac retained the rights to the Bank of Melbourne name and logos, as of 2006 the brand has disappeared altogether.
    • 1998: Westpac sold its operations in New Caledonia and Tahiti to Société Générale, which merged them with Société Générale Calédonienne de Banque (est. 1971) and Banque de Polynésie (est. 1973), respectively.
    • 2001: The government of Kiribati sought to reduce Westpac's share in Bank of Kiribati from 51 to 49%, leading Westpac to sell its shares back to the government. Bank of Hawaii sold its interest in Pacific Commercial Bank (42.7%) to Westpac, which held an equal portion. Westpac offered Samoan investors, who held the remaining shares, the same price it had paid Bank of Hawaii. Westpac now owns 93.5% of Westpac Bank Samoa and Samoan companies and individuals own 6.5%. In Tonga, Bank of Hawaii sold its shares in Bank of Tonga to Westpac, giving Westpac 60% ownership of the bank.
    • 2004: The Reserve Bank of New Zealand required Westpac to incorporate its NZ branches network. Westpac sold its branch in Niue to Bank of South Pacific.

    See also

    Sources

    • Narube, S. and B.T. Whiteside. 1985. “Financial Institutions and Markets in Fiji”. In M. T. Skully, ed. Financial Institutions and Markets in the Southwest Pacific. London: Macmillan Press.
    • Tschoegl, A.E. 2005. Foreign Banks in the Pacific: A Note. Journal of Pacific History.

    References

    1. ^ "Five big banks form Global ATM Alliance", ATMmarketplace.com. January 9, 2002. Accessed June 22, 2007.
    2. ^ http://www.fsunion.org.au/news/public/1189743287_29761.html
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