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The major bank has welcomed Ray Esho to its residential broker team as its new state general manager for NSW/ACT.
Westpac Group has appointed long-serving ING Australia (ING) veteran Esho to its broker team as state general manager, mortgage broker distribution for NSW/ACT.
Esho – who began in his new role on Monday (28 April) – takes over the position left vacant by Sarah Willsallen following her promotion to the head of broker distribution position in February.
He was, until last week, the national manager, SME lending at ING Australia and had been with the bank for 18 years in a range of roles, including as the national manager for broker distrbution (a position he held for 11 years), the head of mortgage products, and as NSW state manager.
Before joining ING in 2007, Esho was a principal at mortgage brokerage Mortgage Choice.
In his new role as state general manager, mortgage broker distribution in NSW/ACT at Westpac, Esho will work alongside the other resi state general managers (including Suzanne Wood [Victoria/Tasmania], Tony Monaco [Western Australia], Andrew Dallisson [South Australia] and Bridget Wallington [Queensland]) to influence policy, process, and technology changes.
He will lead the NSW/ACT broker teams to deliver home loan settlements, enhance broker experience, and achieve revenue and book growth targets across NSW and ACT for both Westpac and St.George.
Esho will continue to have a strong focus on relationship management with brokers, aggregators, and internal stakeholders, while ensuring its broker activities align with the banking group’s risk and return goals.
In a comment to The Adviser, Willsallen said: “With deep knowledge of the broker market, strong relationships with brokers and aggregators and genuine passion for developing his team, Ray is a natural fit for us at Westpac.
“Ray’s commitment to service excellence further cements the calibre of our broker distribution team and our drive to remain a market leader for both brokers and customers.”
Speaking to The Adviser last week, Esho said the fact that he was going to “continue working in a great space like the broker channel was the icing on the cake”.
”Ahuge thanks to ING and the broker distribution team for allowing me to build a large part of my career in the broker industry. After enjoying so many years working with such a great group of people, I felt it was time to take on a new challenge, and my new role will provide me exactly the type of challenge I was hoping for,” Esho commented on Monday.
Taking to LinkedIn, he said: “I’m excited to join Australia’s first bank and contribute to the continued success of Westpac in the Australian broker industry.
“I was attracted to this role given Westpac’s focus on sustainable growth in the mortgage industry, its ongoing investment in technology to improve broker and customer experience, and its focus on developing its people.“
He concluded by saying he was “looking forward to what’s ahead”.
Changes at Westpac’s broker team
The new hire comes amid a succession of leadership changes for the major bank’s third-party channel.
Warren Shaw – who was Westpac’s head of broker distribution – moved into the new role of national general manager, home lending distribution earlier this year, supporting the proprietary channel, with Willsallen taking on leadership for the broker channel.
Speaking of the changes in January, Westpac’s managing director, mortgages, Damien MacRae, said: “We want to be the bank of choice for brokers and customers, and are continuing to invest in delivering market-leading service, competitive products, and new digital innovations to make it simpler and faster to do business.”
One of its recent innovations include a range of updates to its home loan offering, including rolling out multiple offset accounts and tweaking variable rates.
The major bank has been quickly growing its loan book via the broker channel, with recent figures from the prudential regulator showing that the major bank’s total mortgage book grew to $483.30 billion in February 2025 (the most recent data available at the time of writing), comprising $320.70 billion in owner-occupier loans and $162.67 billion in investment loans.
According to its full-year financial results (ending 30 September 2024), almost two-thirds (63.6 per cent) of new Australian mortgages in 2H24 were written by brokers, with around 52 per cent of its whole Australian mortgage book originated by the third-party channel.
Westpac reaffirmed its interest rate forecasts for the remainder of the year, predicting three further cuts totalling 75 bps, including a 25-bp cut in May.
[Related: Ray Esho to depart ING]
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