Westpac’s de Bruin departs as bank struggles in home loan market

It puts Mr Yetton and Mr Miller in the frame to succeed chief executive Peter King when he eventually resigns, though Mr Miller is considered the favourite.

Mr King said splitting the consumer and business portfolios would “sharpen our focus”, and added that the specialist businesses division Mr Yetton had led would be eliminated.

The bank appointed Mr de Bruin as the head of the consumer bank in 2020, poaching him from Dubai-based financial institution Deem. Before that, he was an executive at Standard Chartered Bank in Asia and the Middle East.

Mr de Bruin’s exit after two-and-a-half years in the role, which added oversight of the business bank two months after he started, comes as Westpac’s share of the housing, personal and business lending market trended down over the last 12 months.

Banking sources have been speculating about his future for several months.

The most recent Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data shows Westpac held 21.2 per cent of the mortgage market in May, compared to 21.7 per cent 12 months earlier.

Westpac and ANZ led the aggressive “front book” pricing of mortgages this year, in a bid to win new customers refinancing fixed rate loans. This forced the other major banks to follow.

But it is ANZ that has been more successful in increasing market share, which industry sources said has been a frustration for Westpac.

In the year to the end of May, Westpac grew in owner-occupier home loans at the slowest pace of the major banks, 5.1 per cent, compared to 7.4 per cent at ANZ, 6.4 per cent for CBA and 5.2 per cent for NAB.

Lending to investors – traditionally a strongpoint for Westpac – has also been a disappointing area for growth, with Westpac up by 1.2 per cent in the past year, compared to 5.2 per cent for ANZ, 3.5 per cent for CBA and 1.1 per cent for NAB.

The mortgage market has been the subject of intense rivalry recently due to the entrance of Macquarie, which has grown investor loans by a whopping 15.9 per cent in the 12 months to May and 14.9 per cent in owner-occupier lending.

This has created a protracted battle to win customers, including with cashback offers, which have pressured profits across the sector. At its half-yearly results in May, Mr King said home lending “has never been more competitive” and he argued the bank had ceded market share to maintain discipline.

But the soft performance appears to have put pressure on Mr de Bruin, who is alone among major bank group executives in having responsibility for both the retail and the business bank. This led some rivals to question whether he might have taken on too large a remit. Westpac has responded by splitting the roles.

Mr Yetton has almost completed the asset sale processes in Westpac’s “specialist” businesses unit, which has been simplifying the bank by offloading non-core assets, which he rejoined Westpac to run in 2020.

This came after a stint at Commonwealth Bank. Before that, Mr Yetton ran Westpac’s retail bank for almost four years under Mrs Kelly, after a long stint with BT Financial Group, and before he departed for SocietyOne in 2016.

“Jason has a 30-year history with the group. His breadth of expertise stretches across all facets of banking, including time running Westpac’s retail and business banking division from 2011 to 2015,” Mr King said.

Mr Miller has led Westpac’s institutional bank for almost three years after an investment banking career at Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. He has been trying to restore the division to growth after a flat six months.

“Since joining three years ago, Anthony has grown our institutional business while improving return. He is a seasoned banker, having held executive and client facing roles at some of the world’s leading banks. Anthony is well-placed to drive growth in Westpac business banking,” Mr King said.

He thanked Mr de Bruin for his contribution to Westpac. “He’s led the digitisation of the consumer bank, including the delivery of major initiatives such as the digital mortgage and payment solutions. He’s also driven our branch co-location strategy and strengthened the franchise. Chris will assist with the transition to the new structure,” Mr King said.

Ms Hutton, meanwhile, has been general manager of financial markets in the institutional bank for the past two-and-a-half years, which she joined after more than 20 years at Goldman Sachs.

The organisational changes will take effect from August 1.

Chief operating officer Scott Collary will also move to the chief technology officer role, while Carolyn McCann will add the customer portfolio to her existing duties as the head of corporate services.