WHILE the big four Australian banks consider options overseas, BankWest is building its presence in their backyard.
WHILE the big four Australian banks consider options overseas, BankWest is building its presence in their backyard.
In its latest move, the WA-based bank has joined forces with Royal Automobile Club of Victoria subsidiary RACV Finance.
The bank will provide the credit facilities for RACV Finance and process and manage loan applications for its customers.
BankWest managing director Terry Budge said the bank had been considering different ways of doing business outside WA for some time, including setting up an Emerging Businesses & Systems division headed by Chris Whiteside.
About 20 per cent of the bank’s profit comes from the eastern states.
“We mainly use brokers for our home loan products but we also establish affinities with power companies and professional
service organisations,” Mr Budge said.
Despite its Australia-centric push, Bank-West is maintaining its decade-old Singaporean office.
The bank has also strengthened its hold on the financial planning market in WA, taking a 50 per cent stake in Precedent Finance.
Prior to the merger, Precedent had
purchased KPMG’s financial planning arm. BankWest’s TrustWest bought out Terrace Counsellors.
Mr Budge said merging the four entities made BankWest a major financial planning force in WA.
“I believe financial planning is the way of the future,” he said.
“Banking products have been commoditised. After all, a home loan is a home loan is a home loan.”
A financial planning arm also offers a good distribution point for a bank’s services.
Mr Budge believes the effect of electronic commerce and electronic banking has been greatly underestimated, particularly in the area of business-to-business banking.
Mr Budge said the new technologies would restructure the way businesses dealt with each other. Electronic banking aside, he said the banking industry had changed considerably since he joined in 1972.
“When I joined, investment products were a savings account, a cash account and a term deposit,” he said.
“Loan products included an overdraft, a home loan and, I think, personal loans were just coming on the scene. We didn’t even have credit cards. Now we have 35 different kinds of home loan.
“We used to deliver services primarily through a branch network. Now we can deliver through automatic teller machines, EFTPOS, over the phone and over the Internet.
“When I joined the industry, banking prices were set by the Reserve Bank of Australia. It told us how much money we could lend.
“Staff couldn’t move between banks. No bank would employ the employee of another bank.
“It took ten to fifteen years to become a manager. Everybody had the opportunity to become the chairman or managing director of the bank if they worked the way up through the system.
“Today a branch manager is usually a graduate aged about twenty-two and more women are becoming branch managers.
“The bank used to perform a pretty major role in the community. It was a form of pseudo-advisor.
“However, at that time a lot of Australia was developing rurally. That’s changed now. Instead of the highway it’s the information superhighway.”
Mr Budge said the change in banking had happened dramatically. Over the past decade, 50,000 positions have gone from the industry.
“For years each branch was a mini-bank. Now the branches concentrate on customer service. All processing is centralised.
“There have been complaints about a diminution of service whereas really there is now more choice in service.”
In its latest move, the WA-based bank has joined forces with Royal Automobile Club of Victoria subsidiary RACV Finance.
The bank will provide the credit facilities for RACV Finance and process and manage loan applications for its customers.
BankWest managing director Terry Budge said the bank had been considering different ways of doing business outside WA for some time, including setting up an Emerging Businesses & Systems division headed by Chris Whiteside.
About 20 per cent of the bank’s profit comes from the eastern states.
“We mainly use brokers for our home loan products but we also establish affinities with power companies and professional
service organisations,” Mr Budge said.
Despite its Australia-centric push, Bank-West is maintaining its decade-old Singaporean office.
The bank has also strengthened its hold on the financial planning market in WA, taking a 50 per cent stake in Precedent Finance.
Prior to the merger, Precedent had
purchased KPMG’s financial planning arm. BankWest’s TrustWest bought out Terrace Counsellors.
Mr Budge said merging the four entities made BankWest a major financial planning force in WA.
“I believe financial planning is the way of the future,” he said.
“Banking products have been commoditised. After all, a home loan is a home loan is a home loan.”
A financial planning arm also offers a good distribution point for a bank’s services.
Mr Budge believes the effect of electronic commerce and electronic banking has been greatly underestimated, particularly in the area of business-to-business banking.
Mr Budge said the new technologies would restructure the way businesses dealt with each other. Electronic banking aside, he said the banking industry had changed considerably since he joined in 1972.
“When I joined, investment products were a savings account, a cash account and a term deposit,” he said.
“Loan products included an overdraft, a home loan and, I think, personal loans were just coming on the scene. We didn’t even have credit cards. Now we have 35 different kinds of home loan.
“We used to deliver services primarily through a branch network. Now we can deliver through automatic teller machines, EFTPOS, over the phone and over the Internet.
“When I joined the industry, banking prices were set by the Reserve Bank of Australia. It told us how much money we could lend.
“Staff couldn’t move between banks. No bank would employ the employee of another bank.
“It took ten to fifteen years to become a manager. Everybody had the opportunity to become the chairman or managing director of the bank if they worked the way up through the system.
“Today a branch manager is usually a graduate aged about twenty-two and more women are becoming branch managers.
“The bank used to perform a pretty major role in the community. It was a form of pseudo-advisor.
“However, at that time a lot of Australia was developing rurally. That’s changed now. Instead of the highway it’s the information superhighway.”
Mr Budge said the change in banking had happened dramatically. Over the past decade, 50,000 positions have gone from the industry.
“For years each branch was a mini-bank. Now the branches concentrate on customer service. All processing is centralised.
“There have been complaints about a diminution of service whereas really there is now more choice in service.”