Two-horse race to eventually run Westpac is a gruelling marathon

afr.com:

In a black jacket, white shirt and blue patterned tie, Westpac executive Chris de Bruin sat aside his boss, chief executive Peter King, as parliament’s House of Representative Economics Committee held court this month.

The South African-born banker, in charge of Westpac’s sprawling consumer and business divisions, spoke up only a few times over the next three-and-a-half hours, as the committee examined the institution’s views on scams, interest rates and competition. What it portrayed, unintentionally or otherwise, was a lack of confidence from de Bruin and, damningly, in him.

Chris de Bruin.  Louie Douvis

It’s not hard to imagine why this could have been the case.

While hopes were high when Westpac plucked de Bruin from Dubai-based lender Deem in 2020 – at first to run the retail bank before it was combined with business in 2021 – his divisions, particularly consumer, have misfired.

Mortgage growth slowed below the pace of the overall market in the 12 months to May, meaning Westpac ceded market share to rivals such as ANZ. It is a similar story in personal lending and credit cards, according to the same Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data. Business lending – never Westpac’s strong suit – has also gone into decline under de Bruin’s watch.

Critically, even its relative share of deposits has fluctuated widely in the past few years, according to data compiled by Commonwealth Bank and handed to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s deposit inquiry.

A fortnight after the hearings, The Australian Financial Review broke the news that de Bruin was out of the bank. It confirmed months of speculation – rumours of his resignation had first emerged as far back as April.

Westpac reversed course. Just two