90 jobs affected as Westpac slashes marketing department

Westpac’s marketing department will be slashed by more than 20 per cent as the bank seeks to cut its cost base to $8bn by 2024.

Westpac CEO Peter King: ‘The changes are primarily across head office and support functions, and not customer-­facing roles.’ Picture: Jonathan Ng

Westpac is cutting deeply into its marketing department, slashing more than 20 per cent of roles as the bank implements a swingeing three-year program to reduce its cost base to $8bn by 2024.

Of the 90 affected jobs, about 65 will go, with the remaining 25 phased out through natural attrition.

The restructure will also have an impact on retainers with three key agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi, FinchCo and social media specialist JUNKEE, although all three will remain preferred suppliers.

A couple of smaller agencies will also be affected.

The downsizing of the marketing department will cut costs and remove duplication between Westpac and some of its regional brands.

It comes only months after the appointment of Annabel Fribence as chief brand and marketing officer last November.

Ms Fribence, who reports to consumer and business banking boss Chris de Bruin, was recruited from KFC, where she was chief marketing officer for Asia.

At Westpac, she is responsible for brand, creative and marketing for Westpac, St George Bank, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA and RAMS.

Ms Fribence said Westpac was taking steps to simplify its business and create a more centralised brand and marketing model.

“We are consulting with our people on these changes and will support affected employees throughout this process, including with redeployment opportunities,” she told The Australian.

While the three retainer agencies had made a valuable contribution to Westpac over the years, the changes had been driven by the bank’s simplification and cost agenda.

Relationships with Spark Foundry, DDB and Lavender would continue.

Earlier this month, Westpac pulled forward its restructuring and simplification program in response to an industry-wide margin crunch, which it said would continue for the remainder of the 2022 financial year.

The bank said in an update that it had reduced its workforce by 1100 in the three months to December, comprising 900 third-party contractors and a lesser number of full-time staff.

The intention was to downsize corporate functions by 20 per cent and create a smaller, more focused head office as part of a wider plan to make Westpac simpler and more accountable.

Chief executive Peter King foreshadowed the emergence of a streamlined, lower-cost bank.

“This is key to delivering better services for customers and better results for shareholders,” Mr King said.

“The changes are primarily across head office and support functions, and not customer-­facing roles.

“Bringing our workforce closer to the frontline, combined with the increases we have already made to the number of bankers, will further strengthen our franchise for customers.”

Cost reduction has been a priority for the major banks as they all deal with a big margin squeeze, brought about by customers switching to less profitable fixed-rate mortgages, intense competition and the build-up of expensive, high-quality liquid assets to satisfy regulatory requirements.

Westpac revealed an 8 basis-point collapse in its net interest margin in the December quarter, with the exit margin in December a further 4 basis points lower.

The bank also announced changes to its operating structure to improve efficiency and bring people closer to customers.

Support services including human resources, technology and finance will move to the businesses and customers they support; two shared services areas – corporate services and customer services and technology – will be created to achieve benefits of scale across processes, and a “lean” head office will be responsible for strategy, policy and frameworks for the group.

Separately, Westpac has blamed an overnight software release for a crash of its online share trading platform.

As the market slumped due to war in Ukraine, the platform was unavailable until the issue was resolved around midday. “A manual work around was in place while the online platform was unavailable,” a spokesman said.