Westpac Reveals Technology Upgrade With Billions
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Westpac, an Australian financial institution, has revealed its plan to inject billions of dollars into the simplification of its technology infrastructure.
This major project is expected to be completed in the next four years. This will enhance customer outcomes and reduce its cost-to-income ratio to the level of those banks with higher performance.
The bank has announced that it will provide about 30% of its yearly budget, which is between $1.8 billion to $2 billion in the next series of four years. The move is included in Project Unite, which consists of 85 different technology projects built to reverse ten years of under-investment.
The main focus of these 85 initiatives is to lessen technology duplication and cut the number of platforms which was previously 180 to 60.
Technology Duplication Increases Bank Operating Cost
Westpac’s Chief Executive, Peter King, revealed that technology duplication increases the bank’s operating cost. It also makes it difficult to attain change and makes services complex for staff and customers. He gave an illustration, stating that the cost of integrating open banking was almost 30% more than the total budgeted amount. This was because of some duplications in the bank’s system.
King mentioned that the company now utilizes more technology than required. He also highlighted that now is the perfect moment to introduce Project Unite. This is because the bank has successfully sold non-core businesses and has almost completed its Core program, overseen by APRA.
The bank has been engaged in technology simplification for two years. Moreover, the pronouncement of Project Unite signifies significant growth in its plan.
Collary Shares Westpac Successful Projects
The chief information officer of Westpac, Scott Collary, stated that the bank has completed major projects to date. One of these projects is decreasing the quantity of customer onboarding systems from eleven to one. Others include lessening the total banker platforms aimed at assisting customers from 6 to 3 and joining nine communications together into one.
The major projects for the recent financial year include reducing the three Australian customer master files to one. Furthermore, the bank also intends to consolidate 22 retail electronic identity verification procedures into one as well as reducing 7 collection systems to 1.
The bank’s upcoming projects include merging the 12 contact center platforms into one and streamlining workflow systems from 15 to 1.
Collary mentioned that the majority of platforms that will be utilized in the future are already established. However, some system building will be carried out effectively. The bank will depend on its existing collaboration to finalize the projects.
Westpac’s cost-to-income ratio in 2022/23 was 49.4% while NAB and ANZ were 43.7% and 49.6% respectively. Commonwealth Bank revealed that its CTI was at 44% in the middle of December.
