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The new CEO of Newcastle Permanent, Bernadette Inglis, has officially commenced in her new role and outlined her thoughts on the building society’s partnership with the third-party channel.
Bernadette Inglis, Westpac’s former group general manager of Westpac’s retail and premium bank, started her new role as CEO of Newcastle Permanent on Monday (1 July) after taking over from acting CEO Mark Williams who has been at the helm since Terry Millett’s departure last year.
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Speaking to The Adviser on her first day, Ms Inglis affirmed the building society’s commitment to the broker channel, noting that many home loan customers now turn to the broker channel for their mortgage needs.
Ms Inglis told The Adviser: “It’s a great pleasure and a privilege to join this organisation, and my focus has always been – and will always remain – firmly on customers and the people in our communities. We are an organisation that is here for our customers to help them in their aspirations in life through our financial services capabilities. My aim is to provide fabulous service to our customers, along with the whole of the Newcastle Permanent team, to bring together the capabilities that our customers need and to interact with them in the way that they would like.
“That means having great digital capabilities, having great people in our branches and in our contact centres, but also in terms of having great partnerships in the broker network.”
Ms Inglis elaborated: “Many of our customers and many people in the market look for their home loans and their home ownership aspirations through that community, so it is very important that we have strong partnerships there.
“I would say that we will continue to do that. We have that now and I would see that we continue to do that.”
The new Newcastle Permanent CEO added: “I think that the market is changing quite dramatically. Customer needs are changing dramatically so the best thing we, as Newcastle Permanent, can do – and the best thing we can do with our partners in the broking industry – is fully understand those customer needs and work through how we can best put our services together to help satisfy those needs.
“So as customers go through the changes that happen in their life, we are absolutely there with them and able to help them through that process,” she said.
Ms Inglis added that she believed her “comprehensive career in financial services” would stand her in good stead for her new role as CEO.
“With the expertise and the focus on customers and focus on people that I believe that I, with the whole Newcastle Permanent team, can harness, we can take this organisation from strength to strength,” she said.
Welcoming the new CEO, Newcastle Permanent’s chair, Jeff Eather, added: “We are delighted to welcome Bernadette, with full confidence that she has the perfect skills and experience to lead Newcastle Permanent into the future. Her strong customer, community and people focus, combined with deep financial services experience and expertise, will be a wonderful match with our business."
Mr Eather thanked Mr Williams for his “sterling job as acting CEO” , adding that he had been “incredibly supportive in providing background and insights”.
“The board would like to thank Mark for his dedicated leadership and his assistance in providing a seamless leadership transition as he now returns to the executive team as acting chief customer officer,” he said.
[Related: Macquarie, ING drop rates by 25 bps]
