- This article is about the bank. For the defunct airline, see Western Pacific Airlines.
Westpac (a portmanteau of "Western-Pacific", registered as Westpac Banking Corporation), is a multinational Financial services company and the third largest bank in Australia (by market capitalisation).1 Westpac has also been recognised by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index as the most sustainable bank in the world for the fifth year running.citation needed The bank is one of the Australian 'big four' banks, joining NAB, ANZ, and the Commonwealth Bank as the main providers of financial services to Australians.
Core Business Activities
Westpac's core business consists of nine business units (five customer facing), through which it serves around 8.2 million customers. These business areas are—
Westpac Retail and Business Banking (RBB)
This includes deposit taking, transaction accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and other lending. Westpac is a major home loan provider and also serves the financial needs of business customers with a turnover of up to $20 million. Investment, superannuation and general and life insurance products are also sold through the branch network. In the past, RBB operated as Consumer Financial Services. The name was changed when all retail products were combined in the one division.
Product and Operations(P&O)
P&O provides end to end banking solutions to small and medium enterprises across Australia.
BT Financial Group
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BT Financial Group, Westpac's wealth management division, includes managed investments, life insurance, superannuation and discount broking products in Australia and New Zealand. BT also offers custody and settlement services to institutional customers and fund managers.
Westpac New Zealand
In 1861 the Bank of New South Wales opened seven branches in New Zealand. Some of the old buildings still stand, including one in Oamaru and another in Tokomaru Bay.
Today this unit offers a whole range of consumer and corporate services to clients throughout New Zealand. It is the dominant provider of banking services to small to medium business, corporate and institutional organisations, and is the banker of the New Zealand government [1]. Currently Westpac is the second largest bank in New Zealand, after the merger of ANZ and National Bank, with around 1.5 million customers, 3,000 shareholders and 197 branches nationwide.
On September 29, 2006 Westpac was forced to pay NZ$5.1 million by the New Zealand Commerce Commission over hidden foreign transaction fees (most of the fine is reimbursement to affected customers). All other banks operating in New Zealand have either already been fined or are awaiting a court case. "Westpac to pay $5.1 million over credit card fees, Kiwibank joins list of companies facing charges", Commerce Commission (September 29, 2006). Retrieved on 16 January 2007.
Naming Rights
Former/Defunct Divisions
Business Technology Solutions and Services (BTSS) was Westpac's technology and services arm. It incorporates Westpac's internal IT business units, transformation teams, the bank's operations centres and other support services. These teams have moved to either Product & Operations, Retail and Business Banking, Corporate or to the newly created division "Westpac Technology"
Other Business Units
The three remaining business units are Group Finance, People & Performance (Westpac's name for Human Resources), and Group Risk.
ATM Alliance
Westpac is a member of the Global ATM Alliance, a joint venture of several major international banks that allows customers of the banks to use their ATM card or check card at another bank within the Global ATM Alliance with no fees when traveling internationally. Other participating banks are Barclays (United Kingdom), Bank of America (United States), BNP Paribas (France), China Construction Bank (China), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Grupo Santander (Mexico) and Scotiabank (Canada).2
Westpac Migrant Banking
This unit of both the Australian and New Zealand Bank offers banking facilities to those migrating to either New Zealand or Australia. Bank accounts for migrants can be opened before people arrive in the country using their easy account opening process. Credit cards and mortgages can even be approved before arrival. Westpac Migrant Banking has a representative office in London where accounts can be arranged, although the process allows the process to be done remotely from any country.
Pacific Banking
Westpac now operates in seven south Pacific nations. This unit is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, and offers a wide range of financial service, including electronic banking (via online banking, ATMs and EFTPOS), deposit, loan, transaction accounts and international trade facilities to personal and business customers through a vast network of branches. Westpac Fiji is Westpac's Fijian operation. It is one of the largest banks in the country with a 40% market share.
History
WBC headquarters in Sydney
Established in Sydney in 1817, the Bank of New South Wales was the first bank in Australia. Edward Smith Hall was the first cashier and secretary[2]. During the 19th and early 20th century, the Bank opened branches first throughout Australia and Oceania, at Moreton Bay (Brisbane) in 1850, then in Victoria (1851), New Zealand (1861), South Australia (1877), Western Australia (1883), Fiji (1901), Papua New Guinea (1910) and Tasmania (1910).
- 1927: BNSW acquired the Western Australian Bank.
- 1931: BNSW acquired the Australian Bank of Commerce, which had branches in both New South Wales and Queensland.
- 1942: BNSW suspended operations in Papua New Guinea as the Japanese Army captured many of the towns in which it had branches and agencies, and bombed Port Moresby. It resumed operations in 1946.
- 1968: BNSW joins Databank Systems Limited consortium to provide joint data processing services.
- 1970: BNSW established a branch on Tarawa in Kiribati (ex-Gilbert Islands), which also took over the government savings bank. Also, the company first became listed on 18 July, 1970.
- 1971: It established a branch in the New Hebrides. The next year HSBC and Commercial Bank of Australia (see below) also established branches.
- 1974: The Bank of New Zealand (20%), BNSW (20%), Bank of Hawaii (20%), and the Government of Tonga (40%) established Bank of Tonga as a joint venture.
- 1975: BNSW incorporated its local business in Papua New Guinea as Bank of New South Wales(PNG).
- 1977: BNSW formed Pacific Commercial Bank in Samoa as a joint venture with Bank of Hawaii, buying into Pacific Savings and Loan Company (est. 1969), in which Bank of Hawaii had had an ownership interest since 1971.
- 1982: BNSW merged with the Commercial Bank of Australia to form Westpac Banking Corporation. WBC was framed with the mission to become a significant Western-Pacific bank from which the Westpac portmanteau is derived. As of 2008, this mission has not been accomplished. The brandname incorporated the "W" which had been the logo of the Bank of New South Wales (popularly known as the "Wales Bank").
- 1982-present: This name change became a headache for the small engineering firm in adelaide with the name WESPAC Australia3, causing them to expend thousands of dollars answering Telix, and Telephone enquiries for customers looking for the new bank. To this day (2008) WESPAC (the engineering firm) Receive constant harrasment at the hands of WBC customers via Telephone and Email. Even to the extent that WBC proceeded to threaten WESPAC over it's website for the purposes of Intellectual Property Infringement. WESPAC fiercly denied any infringement as WBC was the first to infringe if anyone.
- 1984: The original agreement between BNSW and the government in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands expired and WBC and the government of Kiribati formed Bank of Kiribati as a 51%-49% joint venture. Bank of Kiribati also fulfilled the functions of a reserve or central bank.
- 1985: WBC replaced Barclays Bank in the National Bank of Tuvalu (est. 1981) in Tuvalu (ex-Ellice Islands), taking 40% of the shares as well as a 10-year management contract.
- 1988: WBC acquired the European Pacific Banking Corporation in the Cook Islands and a HSBC subsidiary, the Solomon Islands Banking Corporation, which HSBC had established as a branch in 1973. WBC also acquired HSBC's operations in Fiji and the New Hebrides, and established a branch in Niue that is the only bank in that country. (HSBC had established its branch in Fiji only some 18 months earlier).
- 1990: Bank of New Zealand sold half its shares in Bank of Tonga to WBC and half to Bank of Hawaii, giving each of them 30%. WBC bought Banque Indosuez's operations in New Caledonia and Tahiti. (Banque de l'Indochine, which later merged into Banque Indosuez, had established itself in New Caledonia in 1888 and in Papeete, Tahiti in 1905. In both places l'Indochine functioned as the bank of issue until 1966-7.)
- 1992: WBC recorded a 1.6 billion dollar loss, which at the time, was the largest loss for an Australian corporation. In this environment, the Bank dismissed staff and raided the superannuationcitation needed to sustain its viability. In the process WBC came close to insolvency, and slipped from being Australia's largest to third largest bank.citation needed
- 1995: WBC sold its shares in National Bank of Tuvalu to that country's government, which now wholly owns the bank.
- 1995: WBC acquired Challenge Bank in Western Australia
- 1996: WBC Holdings NZ bought TrustBanks, a chain of regional banks owned by Community Trusts, for NZD1.2 billion to form NZ largest bank, WestpacTrust. The bank had promised to keep the funding to Community Trusts flowing and to keep "Trust" in its name. However, Community Trust funding has slowed to a trickle, and in 2002 the bank launched a major rebranding which included dropping the "Trust" from its name. The merger of WBC and Trustbank also saw the closure of many branches around New Zealand. In towns and cities where both WBC and Trustbank existed, the bank merged redundant branches into a single branch; also it closed down many branches in rural areas and outer suburbs.
- 1997: WBC acquired Bank of Melbourne in Victoria, paying an estimated price in excess of A$1.4b. Although WBC retained the rights to the Bank of Melbourne name and logos, as of 2006 the brand has disappeared altogether.
- 1998: WBC sold its operations in New Caledonia and Tahiti to Société Générale, which merged them with Société Générale Calédonienne de Banque (est. 1971) and Banque de Polynésie (est. 1973), respectively.
- 2001: The government of Kiribati sought to reduce Westpac's share in Bank of Kiribati from 51 to 49%, leading WBC to sell its shares back to the government. Bank of Hawaii sold its interest in Pacific Commercial Bank (42.7%) to Westpac, which held an equal portion. WBC offered Samoan investors, who held the remaining shares, the same price it had paid Bank of Hawaii. WBC now owns 93.5% of Westpac Bank Samoa and Samoan companies and individuals own 6.5%. In Tonga, Bank of Hawaii sold its shares in Bank of Tonga to Westpac, giving WBC 60% ownership of what is now Westpac Bank of Tonga.
- 2002: WBC acquired BT Financial Group
- 2004: The Reserve Bank of New Zealand required WBC to incorporate its NZ branches network. WBC sold its branch in Niue to Bank of South Pacific.
- 2008: Former St.George Bank CEO Gail Kelly appointed Chief executive officer and Managing director. WBC announced that it intended to acquire the 5th largest Australian bank, St.George Bank, for AUD$19 billion.4 About 95 percent of St George shareholders voted in favor of the merger.
- 2008: On 17 November, the Federal Court of Australia approved the merger of Westpac and St.George.
See also
Sources
- Narube, S. and B.T. Whiteside. 1985. “Financial Institutions and Markets in Fiji”. In M. T. Skully, ed. Financial Institutions and Markets in the Southwest Pacific. London: Macmillan Press.
- Tschoegl, A.E. 2005. Foreign Banks in the Pacific: A Note. Journal of Pacific History.
References
External links
Sydney, Australia
