Australia's Westpac has hired former Commonwealth Bank CIO Bob McKinnon to lead a newly restructured technology division.
McKinnon replaces Simon McNamara, who left the bank on Friday to take up a position with Standard Chartered in Singapore. McKinnon, who previously held the CIO role at Commonwealth Bank of Australia from 2001 to 2006, will head up a new technology division announced as part of a wider organisational restructure.
CEO Gail Kelly today announced that the bank's consumer facing and business banking divisions would be merged into a single group. A new division called Product and Operations has also been created to bring together all consumer and business product development, management and operations. And the former Business Technology Solutions and Services (BTSS) will be disbanded and a new dedicated technology division has been created, with McKinnon as group executive. He will join Westpac on August 18, 2008, while former BTSS head Diane Sias will remain in a transition role until September.
“We have identified the need to enhance our customer segmentation capabilities, and to significantly strengthen our consumer and business banking distribution by building strong, locally empowered businesses," said Kelly.
“A further key priority is to redesign our product processes and our operations to make it easier for our customers to do business with us. Robust technology capability both in the short and long run is also a priority. The organisational changes being announced today are designed to align our operating model with this strategic agenda.”
The changes will be effective from Monday 21 July 2008.