ISCOVER
The big four bank has welcomed a new chief executive for the consumer division, leading the bank’s retail banking division.
Big four bank Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) has announced that Carolyn McCann, the bank’s former group executive, customer and corporate services and acting consumer CEO will take on the role in a permanent position, effective immediately.
McCann has been with the group since 2013 and had been responsible for Westpac’s corporate affairs and marketing, scams and fraud prevention, customer collections and hardship and property resilience.
In her new role, she will now lead the retail bank as chief executive, consumer permanently, after having stepped into the role in an acting capacity following the departure of Jason Yetton in April.
She has around 20 years of experience in banking and finance. Prior to joining Westpac, she worked at insurance company IAG for nearly 12 years, in a range of corporate affairs and communication positions.
Noting the appointment, Westpac CEO Anthony Miller, who became Westpac CEO in December, commented that the new consumer banking chief had helped accelerate the bank’s mortgage performance in the past few months.
Miller said: “Carolyn is an outstanding executive and I’ve seen firsthand her ability to engage and galvanise high-performing teams to deliver results.
"Under Carolyn’s leadership, Westpac’s operations teams have dramatically improved customer outcomes, including mortgage processes, where decision times have been reduced from twelve to five days," he said.
“Scam protection has been significantly upgraded wth market-leading solutions reducing losses by 40 per cent, and complaints handling processes have been transformed.
"Carolyn has brought these outstanding leadership skills to the consumer role, where she leads a team of highly experienced retail banking executives as well as our superb employees across the country.
Miller went on to say that her "drive, vision and determination" would be "an asset to the bank in this role".
"With the right mix of experience, professionalism, teamwork and energy, we now have the team in place to lead Westpac and I’m excited for what we can achieve together,” he said.
The new chief executive of consumer banking is the latest addition to the major bank, including several in the third-party team.
The bank recently appointed Adam Croucher - a former head of broker at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and the most recent state manager for Victoria at non-bank lender Pepper Money - as its new state general manager for the Victorian/Tasmanian broker business for Westpac and Bank of Melbourne.
It also recently welcomed long-serving ING Australia (ING) veteran Ray Esho to its residential broker team as its new state general manager, mortgage broker distribution for NSW/ACT.
Esho – who began in his new role on 28 April – took over the position left vacant by Sarah Willsallen following her promotion to the head of broker distribution position in February.
Westpac mortgage performance on the up
Westpac's home loan performance has also been improving in the past year, with volumes increasing, broker NPS improving and its overall book growing.
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.
[Related: Major bank’s head of retail steps down]
JOIN THE DISCUSSION