Westpac boss wants less software, not more

The banking major isn’t looking to rush its three-year technology transformation under new CEO Anthony Miller, who is standing by its 2028 target for untangling the IT mess.

New Westpac CEO Anthony Miller. Picture: Nikki Short

Westpac’s bank-wide technology transformation program, dubbed Project Unite, cannot go any faster in the race to a 2028 finish which will cost billions but is essential to simplifying its tangled legacy IT systems.

Chief executive Anthony Miller said the bank was making headway in its transformation, with four projects now complete, but he warned in a briefing on Friday accelerating the project or cutting its budget were unlikely.

Mr Miller, who marked his 103rd day as CEO, said Westpac would constantly assess what could be done faster or cheaper: “Let’s see where we are in 204 days,” he said.

Westpac expects almost $2bn will be allocated to overall investment spend this year.

The banking major will plough 35-40 per cent of its investment spend on Project Unite between now and 2028.

Already, the bank has dropped $107m on the technology transformation in the first quarter of 2025, with plans to spend up to $600m over the financial year.

The bank said 75 per cent of the spending on the project would be expensed.

Westpac has 41 different technology simplification projects under way, after wrapping up four in the early days of Project Unite.

Mr Miller said Westpac had to juggle the costs of Project Unite alongside work to improve the bank’s risk culture and processes, an ongoing project kicked off after the bank was hammered by a regulatory penalty from Austrac, the financial crimes regulator.

Mr Miller said Westpac expected its risk-related spending to come off in 2026 through to 2028. He noted the risk spending also reflected the level of complexity inside Westpac, which should fall as the bank decommissioned systems under the technology unification project.

Mr Miller and his executives said although Westpac’s technology stack was advanced and highly functional, there was just “too much of it”.

Mr Miller said the renewal project would be constantly assessed to improve efficiency. Picture: Nikki Short

“We have too many products and services supported by multiple technology stacks,” the Westpac boss said.

Westpac is using a traffic light model to track the progress of its various programs.

The bank said 30 projects were “green” and performing well, 8 were “amber” and subject to delays, and 7 were “red” meaning troubled.

Westpac would be “transparent” in what wasn’t working, warning executives in the bank were also expected to own issues and proactively raise problems in their 7am weekly meetings every Monday, where Project Unite is held to scrutiny.

Mr Miller said Westpac’s project was aimed at closing the cost-to-income gap between it and its major bank rivals. This is a measure of banking efficiency.

It can close the gap by cutting costs as well as growing its business, with plans to push into business lending more aggressively.

About 60-70 per cent of this would be powered by Project Unite, with the remaining 30-40 per cent funded from revenue growth.

Westpac projects it will bank $120m a year in cost savings from simplification of its mortgage system alone.

The work, which migrates mortgage customers across Westpac’s various brands into one single suite of products and processes, is expected to cost $450m.

These larger exercises are happening alongside smaller programs to consolidate processes, such as rolling the 20 different identity verification systems across the bank into one.

Westpac highlighted how its previous systems were leading to regional customers driving hundreds of kilometres to verify their ID, with this now able to be done online via the bank’s app.

Originally published as Westpac boss wants less software, not more