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The big four bank has announced it will welcome a new group CEO and MD in December, when its current leader steps down after five years at the helm.
Major bank Westpac has announced that its CEO Peter King will retire from his role as group CEO and managing director at the end of the year, with the CEO for Westpac’s business and wealth division taking over.
King will give way to Anthony Miller on 16 December 2024, concluding his 30-year career at Westpac as he retires.
Miller has worked at the major bank for the past four years and has extensive banking experience, including as a former CEO of Australia/NZ and co-head of Investment Bank, APAC at Deutsche Bank.
He also spent 16 years at Goldman Sachs, including as a partner, and has experience as a banking and finance and commercial litigation lawyer.
Announcing the appointment on behalf of the Westpac board of directors, Westpac chair Steven Gregg said Miller was “the right person” to take the company into a new era.
“Anthony is an exceptional leader. He’s an individual of integrity and he’s ready to lead Australia’s oldest company. He has deep expertise in financial services and global banking and has built a considerable track record of delivery over 25 years,” Gregg said.
“Anthony is ambitious for the future of Westpac and its customers. Since joining Westpac in 2020, he’s put the Institutional Bank on a path to reclaiming its leadership position. He’s spent the past year leading Business & Wealth, restoring growth and focusing on customers.
“In our search for a CEO, we looked for an executive who is customer-focused with a proven record of performance and a deep understanding of the Australian market.
“Anthony is that executive. He has a vision to return Westpac to a position of leadership and build on the foundational work of the past five years. As an internal appointment Anthony knows what needs to be done and will move at pace, ensuring a seamless transition.”
Outgoing CEO King welcomed the appointment of his successor: “Anthony will make a great CEO. In his time at Westpac he’s proven he has what it takes to deliver for customers, employees and shareholders. He’s an experienced banker, with customers at the heart.
“As a result of the hard work completed over the past five years, Westpac is now a simpler, stronger bank, with an improved risk culture. The company is well-placed for its next phase under Anthony.”
Miller said he was honoured by the appointment.
“Westpac is an exceptional company that plays a profoundly important role in the lives of millions of Australians,” the incoming CEO said.
“I’m excited by the opportunity and I’m grateful for Peter’s significant contribution as CEO.
“My aspiration is to build on that work and unleash Westpac’s true potential.
“I want Westpac to be a bank built on trust and reliability – always there to help our customers through every one of life’s moments.
“I’m committed to growing the bank safely and sustainably, completing the Customer Outcomes and Risk Excellence transition and delivering UNITE, our business and technology simplification.”
The board acknowledged King’s decades of service to the bank, with the chair saying: “Peter has done an outstanding job as CEO of Westpac.
“He stepped in at a very difficult time in 2019, steering the company through several regulatory challenges and the COVID pandemic. Since then, Peter has provided much-needed stability to the bank while transforming risk management.
“He simplified the company’s portfolio of businesses and returned it to growth in key divisions. He’s now begun the critical task of technology simplification, which will continue under Anthony.
“Peter’s time as CEO will forever be defined by his courage and commitment to Westpac.
He leaves a significant legacy and we owe him a great debt of gratitude.”
The Westpac CEO has come under fire from the broking industry recently, after he told the standing committee on economics’ review of the major banks that broker remuneration should be capped if banker incentives are.
Siding with comments made earlier by CBA CEO Matt Comyn, King pointed to the lack of caps on mortgage broker pay, saying they, too, should be reviewed if there are concerns about inappropriate lending behaviour.
The Westpac CEO said last month: “I’d say on industry and policy that there is a lot of focus on the banks, but we only write one in four mortgages now. If you go back five or 10 years ago, it used to be one in two were written through the banks. Now, three-quarters of mortgages are written by mortgage brokers. If you’re worried about there being an incentive issue in the market, then it really should be a standard that’s applied to the whole market...
“[I]f the corporate regulator and some of the commentators in the industry believe that there could be issues, then I think we need to have a cap for the whole system. You can’t have the smallest part of the market, which is the banks now, at a different point to the others because I think the systemic risk is actually higher in the mortgage broker piece.”
[Related: Major bank CEOs slammed for calling for cap on broker commissions]
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