Westpac names Peter Herbert as interim business and wealth boss

Peter Herbert will be appointed interim head of Westpac’s business lending arm.

Anthony Miller and the man he is succeeding as chief executive, Peter King. Picture: Jane Dempster

Outgoing Westpac CEO Peter King has put in place an interim boss of the bank’s business and wealth division amid a global search for a replacement.

Westpac said Peter Herbert would take on the acting chief executive position at the division, which serves the lender’s commercial, agribusiness and high-net-wealth clients.

Mr Herbert, currently chief operating officer at the division, will replace Westpac’s incoming chief executive, Anthony Miller, who currently runs the unit.

Mr Miller is set to become Westpac CEO on December 16.

Westpac business and wealth acting chief executive Peter Herbert

Mr Herbert joined Westpac in 2020 after a career in banking, ­including an extensive stint at global lender HSBC as chief operating officer of its Asia-Pacific ­retail banking and Wealth Management business.

Mr King said Mr Herbert was “an accomplished, engaging and accessible leader who has built a culture of innovation since joining Westpac”.

“He will provide stable and experienced leadership to the business and wealth division when Anthony steps into my role at the end of the year,” he said.

“This change will also allow Anthony to spend time with me in a handover period before he begins as CEO.”

Westpac said a global replacement search would be launched to find a permanent head of the business and wealth division.

The move to appoint Mr Herbert to head the division comes after Westpac confirmed Mr Miller as the next chief executive of the bank in September, after Mr Miller had spent almost 12 months heading up the commercial lending arm.

Mr Miller joined Westpac from rival Deutsche Bank after the European lender reduced its global operations as part of a ­restructure.

But Mr Miller faces a leadership shake-up after taking on the top job at Westpac, after the bank’s powerful retail head, Jason Yetton, missed out on the chief executive role.

He also faces a squeeze on talent amid a broader shake-up in the banking sector, with a change in leadership at NAB and a looming shift at the top of fellow top four bank ANZ.

International rival HSBC has moved to split its business into an eastern and western market ­division under new CEO Georges Elhedery.

Originally published as Westpac names Peter Herbert as interim business and wealth boss