Westpac splits IT and ops, reinstates CIO role

Westpac Banking Group has reinstated its chief information officer role and made technology a "standalone function" as part of its ongoing simplification of the bank.

The bank unveiled a restructure on Wednesday that will see its current chief operations officer Scott Collary become the bank's CIO.

The restructure unwinds a combined operations and technology function that the bank set up in mid-2020.

Now, technology is being carved back out into its own domain, while operations will shift under corporate services, "creating an expanded shared services team".

Westpac CEO Peter King said Collary “will continue to spearhead our technology transformation with a focus on streamlining our tech systems across the Westpac Group."

The change takes effect on August 1.

The last full-time Westpac CIO was Craig Bright, who relocated to the UK in 2020 to take up a role at Barclays.

The expanded corporate services function, including operations, will be led by Carolyn McCann. She also adds customer services to her remit.

Also being split under the restructure is consumer banking and business banking, which previously came under a single executive, Chris de Bruin. He is leaving the bank altogether.

Part of de Bruin's role was digitisation, which included seeding digital payment advancements in the company, including ‘Tap and Go’.

King thanked De Bruin for his work, “including the delivery of major initiatives such as the digital mortgage and payment solutions.”

The restructure comes as Westpac moves into a "new strategic phase" of an ongoing effort to simplify the bank. These efforts also aim to improve accountability and reduce costs.

The bank recently cut 300 staff from the corporate functions that serve its consumer and business bank division, with IT staff among those impacted.

King said the new structure will “give the leadership team a greater focus on growing their businesses and delivering for customers”.