Three major appointments remain after Westpac appoints Michael Rowland as CFO

Westpac CEO Peter King. Picture: Nikki Short

Westpac chief executive Peter King has turned to KPMG partner Michael Rowland to fill the vacant position of chief financial officer, leaving a further three executive appointments to be finalised.

The remaining three positions on the bank’s executive committee include Westpac’s institutional banking boss, the chief information officer, and the head of the consumer bank.

Group treasurer Curt Zuber is the acting chief of institutional pending completion of an international search, while Richard Burton was appointed acting head of consumer last month.

Mr King has also announced the promotion of Les Vance, previously chief operating officer of the consumer division, to the new position of chief executive financial crime, compliance and conduct management.

His third key appointment was a second tour of duty at Westpac for Jason Yetton, who was recruited to the new role of chief executive, specialist businesses, responsible for Westpac’s superannuation, life insurance and wealth platform businesses.

Mr King has therefore made three new appointments to his executive committee, with a further three to come.

The board and management of Westpac were up-ended after Austrac lodged Federal Court proceedings against the bank last November, alleging millions of breaches of anti-money laundering laws.

The two parties are still haggling over an appropriate penalty, with Austrac seeking as much as $1.5bn and Westpac setting aside only $900m.

Newly appointed Westpac CFO Michael Rowland. Picture: Supplied

In the wake of the legal action, chief executive Brian Hartzer resigned, chairman Lindsay Maxsted brought forward his departure, and independent director Ewen Crouch did not seek re-election.

The promotion of then-CFO Mr King to acting chief executive, and later to the permanent role, was followed by a brace of resignations.

Consumer banking boss David Lindberg, an internal CEO candidate who had only been running Westpac’s largest division for 14 months, accepted a senior position with the Royal Bank of Scotland, and CIO Craig Bright was lured to the UK bank Barclays in the same role.

A week later, institutional banking boss Lyn Cobley announced her retirement.

Mr King said in a statement on Tuesday that Mr Rowland brought strong experience across the financial services industry, having held senior positions at ANZ and ING Australia.

Most recently at KPMG, he was a partner in management consulting, specialising in financial services.

“Michael’s experience is broad across both CFO and business leadership roles,” the Westpac boss said.

“His most recent experience in consulting as a senior partner at KPMG also brings valuable external perspectives.

“In particular, Michael’s expertise in business restructuring, delivering sustainable productivity and revenue programs and in disciplined financial management will be an important contributor to making Westpac a simpler and stronger bank.”

While Mr King is halfway through a management restructure, Mr McFarlane has also made it clear that he wants a makeover of the board to inject some more banking experience.

In a letter to shareholders last April, the chairman said banking was a highly specialised and complex sector which was prone to a lot of cycles.

“Banks are highly leveraged and dependent on the economies that they serve,” he said.

“As such, it is important that we have a strong management team and a diverse board with appropriate banking and other relevant credentials.

“While it is important we have non-executive directors with significant time on the board, we also need to ensure the board is renewed.

“Ensuring the strength, relevant experience and diversity is one of my highest priorities.”

Mr McFarlane has already changed the way that the Westpac board committees function, splitting the risk functions into two committees.

The legal and regulatory committee now handles regulatory and legal investigations, as well as remediation, including financial crime remediation.

The risk committee looks after risk appetite, current and future credit policies, and market and operational risks.

Each committee has a different mix of directors.