Company overview
About us
Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) was founded in 1817 and was the first bank established in Australia.
Westpac began trading on 8 April, 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales with a single office in Macquarie Place, Sydney. In 1982, with the merger of the Commercial Bank of Australia, it changed its name to Westpac Banking Corporation. On 23 August 2002, Westpac was registered as a public company limited by shares under the Australian Corporations Act (2001). In December 2008, Westpac merged with St.George Bank Limited.
Today:
- The Westpac Group has branches and controlled entities throughout Australia, New Zealand and the near Pacific region and maintains offices in key financial centres around the world including London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore
- As at 30 September 2011, The Westpac Group employed approximately 38,000 people (full time equivalent basis) in Australia, New Zealand and around the world, and had global assets of $670 billion
- Westpac is ranked in the top 5 listed companies by market capitalisation on the Australian Securities Exchange Limited (ASX). As at 30 September 2011, our market capitalisation was $61.6 billion
- For the financial year to 30 September 2011, The Westpac Group's reported net profit after income tax was $6,991 million
- About 570,000 people and institutions in Australia and overseas are Westpac shareholders.
The Westpac Group has 3 key customer facing divisions serving around 12 million customers:
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Australian Financial Services (AFS) encompasses our retail and business banking operations in Australia and includes the businesses of Westpac Retail & Business Banking, St.George Banking Group and BT Financial Group. It also encompasses Banking Products and Risk Management.
- Westpac Retail & Business Banking (Westpac RBB) is responsible for sales and customer service of our consumer, small-to-medium enterprise customers and commercial customers (typically with turnover of up to $100 million) in Australia under the Westpac brand;
- St.George Banking Group is responsible for sales and service for consumer, business and corporate customers in Australia under the St.George, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA and RAMS brands;
- BT Financial Group Australia (BTFG) is Westpac’s wealth and insurance business. BTFG’s brands include Advance Asset Management, Ascalon, Asgard, BT, BT Investment management (64.5% owned by Westpac), Licensee Select, Magnitude and Securitor. BTFG is also responsible for and the advice, private banking and insurance operations across all our brands;
- Westpac Institutional Bank (WIB) delivers a broad range of financial services to commercial, corporate, institutional and government customers with connections to Australia and New Zealand. Customers are supported through branches and subsidiaries located in Australia, New Zealand, New York, London and key Asian centres; and
- New Zealand Banking is responsible for sales and service of banking, wealth, and insurance products for consumer and small-to-medium business customers in New Zealand. Banking products are provided under the Westpac brand, while insurance and wealth products are provided by Westpac Life New Zealand and BT New Zealand.
Other business divisions in the Group comprise:
- Pacific Banking – provides banking services for retail and business customers in seven Pacific countries, and reports into Westpac Institutional Bank;
- Group Services – which encompasses technology, banking operations, legal and property services;
- Group Treasury, which is primarily focused on the management of the Group’s interest rate risk and funding requirements, and reports into the Chief Financial Officer; and
- Core Support, which comprises those functions performed centrally, including finance, risk and human resources.
