ISCOVER
Westpac has confirmed another senior appointment to its broker team, welcoming a former CBA head of broker to its ranks.
Major bank Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) has welcomed Adam Croucher to its team as its new state general manager for the Victorian/Tasmanian broker business for Westpac and Bank of Melbourne, effective immediately.
Croucher has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services space, predominantly at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
While at CBA, Croucher worked closely with the broker channel in a range of capacities, including general manager, third-party banking (2018–23) and as state manager for Victoria/Tasmania. He also had experience as a branch manager and area manager.
Most recently, Croucher worked at non-bank lender Pepper Money, where he was responsible for growth in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.
In his new role at Westpac, he now takes over responsibility for running the bank’s broker channel relationships and influencing policy, process, and technology changes in the southern states, taking over from Suzanne Wood (who was promoted to the position of head of home lending last month).
Welcoming Croucher to the Westpac third-party team, the bank’s head of broker distribution, Sarah Willsallen, noted his “strong intellect, depth of experience and personal passion for the broker channel”.
Willsallen told The Adviser: "We have made no secret of our ambition to be a market leader in the broker channel, and this has enabled us to attract the best talent in the market to join our broker business.
"Adam is a deep thinker who understands the entire broker ecosystem, including brokers, aggregators and lenders. He is a strong relationship builder and cares deeply for his people and supporting their growth and development."
The appointment is the latest senior leadership change in Westpac’s broker team this year, following the promotion of Willsallen to head of broker distribution in February.
It also welcomed former ING banker Ray Esho to its team as general manager for NSW/ACT earlier this year.
The major bank has been transforming its mortgage broker offering in the past few years, overhauling its operations and processes and improving turnaround times.
Its changes have been welcomed by brokers, who this year ranked Westpac as the best-performing major bank for third-party origination and put it in the top 10 lenders in broker for the first time in nearly a decade.
In its financial results for the six months to March 2025 (1H25), the major reported that its total lending book grew 5 per cent year on year to $824.8 billion, while its Australian mortgage portfolio grew to $510.2 billion, up 3 per cent from $495.2 billion in the prior year period (1H24).
The share of new mortgages originated through the broker channel, which now writes more than three-quarters of all Australian home loans, increased over the half to 67.5 per cent (up from 61.4 per cent in 1H24).
As such, the proportion of all mortgages written through the proprietary channel dropped to 32.5 per cent – a new record low.
Given the shrinking volume of loans written by the direct channel, just under 47 per cent of the group’s total loan book has been originated through the proprietary channel (down from 49.4 per cent in 1H24), as brokers continued to gain more share in home loans written.
You can find out more about what brokers think about Westpac and its broker offering in the July edition of The Adviser magazine, out now!
[Related: Westpac welcomes new NSW/ACT general manager]
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