Westpac moves jobs back to Australia from COVID-stricken countries impacting its operations

Westpac will bring 1000 jobs back to Australian shores after admitting its overseas operations have been “too slow” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Westpac says it will move 1000 jobs back to Australia from overseas after foreign COVID-19 restrictions caused mass delays in home-lending processing times.

The country’s second largest bank said the decision followed months of challenging conditions where overseas loan processing and call centres were unable to keep up with the large surge in customer assistance that took place since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Delays in loan processing times have plagued the banking sector since March.

Call centres were even forced to close due to foreign government COVID-19 restrictions.

Westpac said the challenging condition brought on by the virus in its overseas operations had resulted in the jobs moving back to the domestic market.

The bank’s move also follows an increase in refinancing activity from existing home-loan customers who are looking to lock in low interest rates for their ongoing loan repayments.

Westpac CEO Peter King has admitted the bank’s response rates have been ‘too slow’. Picture: Nikki Short

Westpac chief executive officer Peter King admitted the bank’s response rates to the “unprecedented” crisis had been “too slow” at times, with the new roles reducing the risk of offshore disruption.

“Bringing jobs back to Australia has been made possible with the changing work patterns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the upgrade to our technology infrastructure over recent years,” he said.

“We will also be returning all dedicated voice roles to Australia to enhance the capacity of our existing call centres. This will mean when a customer calls us, it will be answered by someone in Australia.”

The 1000 new jobs will be part of Westpac’s distributed workforce structure across Australia, with the roles planned for new and existing employees.

Jobs will be distributed to both metropolitan and regional areas. The implementation of the new roles is expected to take up to 12 months and will increase Westpac’s costs by approximately $45 million per annum.

“Today’s announcement is a further step in transforming our business and mortgage operations, helping to support local employment, reducing the risk of offshore disruption and accelerating our ability to simplify processes through digitisation,” Mr King said.