Westpac reveals the name of its new business boss

The banking major is still to announce a chief financial officer or human resources boss, as new CEO Anthony Miller makes his mark on the executive make-up.

Westpac has announced Paul Fowler as its new head of business and wealth.

Westpac has poached Commonwealth Bank’s regional and agribusiness banking boss Paul Fowler to run its business and wealth division.

The bank told investors Mr Fowler, currently executive general manager of CBA’s rural operation, would join Westpac “mid-year”.

He has worked at CBA since 2015, first as institutional banking and markets chief financial officer and later as mergers and acquisitions executive general manager.

Mr Fowler will replace acting business and wealth boss Peter Herbert, who has run the division since the elevation of Anthony Miller to the role of Westpac chief executive in September.

Mr Miller said Mr Fowler “has built an impressive track record of success over a long career”, with the career banker also doing stints in Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, often advising financial ­in­stitutions in Australia and offshore.

“I know Paul will bring a strong customer focus, experience in leading high performing teams and a drive for results in this important segment of the market for Westpac,” he said.

The Westpac CEO said Mr Herbert had “done a superb job of driving momentum and focus” in the business bank since taking on the reins last year.

Mr Miller ran Westpac’s business bank for a year and a half before being handed the CEO role.

Sources said Mr Fowler’s departure from CBA would be a blow for the bank, with some noting he had been a likely internal candidate to replace business bank boss Mike Vacy Lyle, in the event of the latter’s departure.

CBA has been a major contender for Westpac in recent years.

Mr Miller is still looking to finalise Westpac’s leadership line-up. The bank is yet to announce a new chief financial officer, after Michael Rowland announced he would retire in December, and a new head of Human Resources, with Christine Parker also retiring this year.

Westpac and several other banks are due to report their earnings performance in the coming weeks, with the bank to unveil its first quarter earnings on February 17 ahead of its financial half-year results on May 5.

Westpac has been among the best performing major banks on the ASX over the past year.

Morgan Stanley analyst Richard Wiles said Westpac was the slowest growing bank in home lending over December, with 5.4 per cent annualised growth. However, this partly reflects Westpac’s move to close its RAMS home lending business.

ANZ, National Australia Bank and CBA led the pack with 6.6 per cent annualised growth in December.

Citi banks analyst Brendan Sproules said CBA and Westpac were among the fastest growing business lenders at the end of 2024.

Westpac grew by about 13 per cent year on year.

He said Westpac was the preferred bank for Citi, noting “there is an underappreciated revenue momentum that is playing out in the data as loan growth is better funded than peers”.

Westpac has been on a cost cutting drive under Mr Miller, while a tech transformation kicked off under his predecessor Peter King.

This “Project Unite” is aimed at streamlining Westpac’s approvals processes and technology systems across its different businesses, including stablemate bank St ­George.

The $2bn transformation program covers almost 60 initiatives and also sees Westpac making a number of changes in its business lending operation.

Originally published as Westpac reveals the name of its new business boss