The life and times of Jason Yetton, banking’s Lazarus

afr.com:

At Westpac, what is old is new again. The return of Jason Yetton – who will take the reins of Westpac’s retail bank for the second time next month – represents one of the great comebacks in Australian banking.

Like Lazarus, the role is a second coming for Yetton, who previously held the gig between 2011 and 2015, during the tenure of Gail Kelly. Unlike today, that was a time when its mortgage book was humming, and Westpac was on the ascendancy.

Jason Yetton was a rising star at Westpac; he’s back at the bank where he made his name. 

Indeed, by 2015, Westpac had reported nine successive record half-yearly profits, and it was Yetton’s retail bank that was the powerhouse performer. This turned Kelly into a star, and made Yetton her favourite son.

But this time around, things will be much more demanding for Yetton. Since he left in mid-2015 – following a clash of egos with new CEO Brian Hartzer, after he backed the wrong horse in the race to succeed Kelly – Westpac has been hammered with a series of unrelenting blows.

First came the banking royal commission, and then the devastating money laundering scandal, when an AUSTRAC case triggered an APRA review that identified problems with the bank’s risk culture.

The fallout, including a complex remediation process, sucked up management time, and, disturbingly for the bottom line, Westpac has been slipping in key areas of lending. Most concerning, it is losing ground in mortgages. It has underinvested in its clunky technology systems. It has fallen away servicing mortgage brokers, and has lost its lead in backing fintech start-ups. Not surprising, its stock price has underperformed.

So taking back the gig will bring numerous challenges for Yetton. But interviews with several