(28 March 2025 – Australia) Westpac chief executive Anthony Miller has outlined a plan to streamline the bank’s technology infrastructure, with an estimated investment of $3 billion over four years.
The initiative, named Unite, is aimed at simplifying operations and reducing long-term costs.
In his first major briefing to analysts and investors since becoming CEO in December, Miller detailed how Unite will consolidate Westpac’s various technology systems, including those of its subsidiary brands such as St George, Bank of Melbourne, and BankSA, which have operated on separate platforms since their acquisitions.
The bank has allocated $600 million for the project this year, with a focus on significantly reducing the number of products and processes. By integrating these brands onto a unified platform, Westpac aims to address its escalating expenses, which reached $11 billion last year – an unsustainable level given slow lending growth, according to analysts.
A major component of Unite involves migrating 1.8 million customers from St George, Bank of Melbourne, and BankSA onto Westpac’s app technology at a cost of $120 million. Additionally, all deposits, mortgages, credit and debit cards, and loan origination systems for these brands will be transitioned to the same core technology as Westpac.
When questioned about the future of Westpac’s subsidiary brands – following reports in the AFR of a project codenamed Aries exploring potential changes – Miller stated that work was still “ongoing.”
“A lot of initiatives are still being heavily planned and worked through,” he said, emphasising the focus on streamlining technology systems. “The goal is to make sure, in any move from one system to another, there is minimum to no impact on customers.”
Westpac has already integrated St George’s private bank into its main operations and is considering shifting large business banking customers to the Westpac brand. The bank also announced a $300 million investment over the next five years to develop a new loan origination platform aimed at speeding up credit approvals for business loans.