Newly merged banking group announces new leaders

Auswide is now an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of MyState Limited.

The merger has been in the works for six months and recently received necessary shareholder, regulatory and court approvals.

It has resulted in a new group with four customer-facing brands: MyState Bank, Auswide Bank, SelfCo (asset finance), and TPT Wealth.

The combined group has a mortgage book of $12.7 billion in home lending, nearly $10 billion in retail deposits and 272,000 customers (around 180,000 MyState customers and 92,000 Auswide customers).

As the group marks its first day of implementation, a new management team has been revealed.

Brett Morgan, the managing director & CEO of MyState Bank, will lead the merged group and has appointed four general managers to drive the growth across each of the group's brands.

Tim Newman - previously the general manager, lending at MyState Bank, has now been appointed as general manager of MyState Bank.

Damian Hearne - the chief customer officer at Auswide Bank - will become general manager of Auswide Bank. (Doug Snell, who was managing director of Auswide Bank, will be departing the bank.)

Rob Burden, the managing director of SelfCo, will become general manager of SelfCo while the current leader of TPT Wealth, Matt Pearson, has been named as general manager for that arm the group.

Speaking to The Adviser about the personnel changes, Morgan commented: “It’s really important for our business that we're set up cleanly and clearly to continue to grow all four [brands].

“With MyState Bank, it's going to be led by Tim Newman... So Tim will lead the bank into the future, which is very exciting. He's done a wonderful job on the lending side, and he'll continue to lead the lending business, but also take on the everyday banking part of the business.

“On the Auswide team, I've appointed a general manager there as well: Damian Hearne. He's been at Auswide as the chief customer officer and responsible for broker distribution and broker engagement for quite a long time. So Damian will lead the Auswide brand and business.

“Rob Burden, who's the managing director of SelfCo, will continue to lead the SelfCo business (the asset finance business), and Matt Pearson leads our TPT Wealth business.”

Morgan added that while the merger has officially completed, brokers “should feel absolutely no difference”, highlighting that they will be still serviced by “the same BDMs, same operations team, same broker support” that they have been used to under the separate brands.

“From day one, there is zero change for brokers and their customers. This is really important and it has been a priority of mine that the businesses continue to run independently and grow and drive growth,” he told The Adviser.

However, Morgan said the group would be “consolidating some other parts of the business, such as the group services and shared services” and investing in the integration and transformation functions of the business.

“But for brokers, they won't see anything different, feel anything different, except for where we can make improvements and invest into that transformation, improvements the other change,” he said.

Morgan revealed that the bank is currently identifying opportunities for improvement in the broker experience, including turnaround times and the ultimate experience of the borrower, stating: “We will start those ‘lighter touch’ wins, where we can deliver quick wins, and identify where can we make it more efficient from brokers to deal with any of our brands.”

“Being a smaller bank, we have to be competitive, both in service products and the proposition we offer. And so what's critical for us is we continue to do that and only offer those products that are competitive.

“So we will go through that process to make sure that we're best placed to offer brokers a real choice across Australia. And we want to be the choice that brokers choose and continue to keep the trust of the brokers to offer our products and services to their customers.”

New MyState board revealed

As well as management changes, the new group has also today welcomed a new board.

Sandra Birkensleigh (previously the chair of Auswide Bank) has taken up the role as chair of the board of the merged group. She is a non-executive director alongside Sibylle Krieger, Warren Lee, Vaughn Richtor and Andrea Waters, and new NEDs Gregory Kenny and Jacqueline Korhonen.

Stephen Davy - who was chair of the group people remuneration and nominations committee as well as a member of the hroup risk and group audit committees - has resigned his position as a NED.

The MyState board thanked Davy for his “considerable contribution to the company” since taking on the NED position in July 2021.

Welcoming the first day of the merger, the new MyState chair, Sandra Birkensleigh, said: “We expect significant long-term benefits for shareholders from merging two strong, customer-centric businesses with quality loan books and deep roots in their local communities.”

MyState Managing Director & CEO Brett Morgan concluded: “Today we celebrate the first day of a new MyState with the Auswide merger complete. We look forward to growing into a stronger and larger regional bank with a more diverse customer and geographic footprint.

“We will be in a great position to invest and to provide Australians with a real alternative for their banking, asset finance and wealth needs. The merger will significantly enhance the scale of the group and increase funding flexibility.”

He added: “The new board and executive team are in place on Day 1 to drive business growth and lead integration initiatives.

“I look forward to working with our broader team as we deliver value for our customers and shareholders.”

MyState loan book holds firm

MyState also delivered its half-year financial results today for the six months ending December 2024, showing that its home lending was up marginally (0.3 per cent) to $8.0 billion.

It settled $900 million in the first half of the year, with brokers accounting for 89 per cent of new flows in the half. This was up on the same period in FY24 (when it was 87 per cent) but down from the 92 per cent recorded in the June half.

New flows were largely for variable rate loans (97 per cent).

Overall, the broker channel has been responsible for originating 83 per cent of MyState's total loan book.

The bank noted strong “price competition” in market as a factor impinging growth, along with an “elevated” rate of run-off (at 27.8 per cent), which it suggested was a “sector-wide” issue.

Arrears rates remain below industry average with 90+ days stable at 44 basis points.

[Related: Auswide shareholders vote in favour of MyState merger]