(5 April 2017 – Australia) Fintechs will become increasingly important to Westpac’s survival, said chief executive Brian Hartzer.
Hartzer, who was speaking at Amazon Web Services cloud computing summit in Sydney said the bank’s ability to partner, acquire and invest in the growing band of emerging will be paramount to it’s future.
He said that although Westpac has adapted over its 200 year history to technological changes, it cannot continue to compete with the rapid changes in technology without targeting startups.
“We can adopt techniques like customer-centred design and agile sprints to drive change faster in Westpac but by working with startups we think we get the best of both worlds,” Hartzer said.
Hartzer highlighted more investments from Reinventure, the bank's A$100 million venture capital fund, which has already invested in fintechs and startups such as Data Republic and Coinbase.
“It's the next stage of adapting and it stays true to our core purpose of helping customers,” Hartzer said.
Speaking to The Australian Financial Review, Hartzer said that although the VC return on investment was not of foremost importance in setting up the firm, he expected it to be good.