Blog
Blog
Blog
Blog
3 May, 2021
Author
Ranina Sanglap
Westpac Banking Corp. is seeking to slash its costs by nearly 40% in four years by shedding some specialist businesses, scaling back on branches and improving its processes after a recovery in the Australian economy from the COVID-19 pandemic helped the lender grow its profit three-fold in its fiscal first half of the year.
Australia's third-biggest bank by assets aims to have a cost base of A$8 billion by 2024, compared with A$12.7 billion in the last fiscal year that ended September 2020, a plan some analysts think may be tough to achieve.
CEO Peter King said at a May 3 call with analysts and reporters that Westpac plans to spend between A$3.5 billion and A$4.0 billion over the next three years in measures to cut its cost base, including an improvement in its processes and risk management systems. The significant customer remediation costs the company has been forced to incur "have been disappointing" and they must be reduced as the bank improves its control environment, King said.