Westpac names ex-ANZ CEO as new chair

John McFarlane will become chair of the Westpac board on 2 April, succeeding Lindsay Maxsted. He will commence as a non-executive director in February, pending regulatory approval.

Maxsted has significant international finance experience for troubled organisations, including serving chairman at Barclays in London during the global financial crisis. Before that, he delivered a successful turnaround program at UK insurer Aviva, which is similar in scale to Westpac.

Outgoing chair Lindsay Maxsted was generous in his praise. "Mr McFarlane is not only well known in Australia and New Zealand, but is a respected banking leader globally who brings to our organisation more than 44 years' experience in financial services. He has worked across retail and wholesale banking and markets, as well as in life and general insurance, and has board and public service experience in this and other fields."

To Maxsted, it's more than just turning around a business, but also in delivering sustainable cultural and organisational change. "Mr McFarlane is passionate about driving progress in the banking industry.

"In addition to his global career, Mr McFarlane brings a deep understanding of Australia's banking sector, including delivering significant value at ANZ over his 10-year tenure as CEO, which also included 10 years as a Director of the Australian Bankers' Association, two as Chairman.

"This experience, coupled with his strong customer and employee focus, will be invaluable to Westpac as the organisation executes its strategy and implements its Response Plan for the AUSTRAC Statement of Claim."

McFarlane says he hadn't planned on taking any leadership roles on his return to Australia, however his passion for the Australian banking sector - and the challenges facing Westpac - drove him to consider the opportunity.

"To some extent, the internal and external challenges ahead for Westpac are not dissimilar to those in my last five financial institutions, and I have therefore grown comfortable about my capacity to work with the Board and management to effect the necessary change. Nevertheless, I'm sufficiently battle-hardened to realise things can be tougher than you think and that in banking, nothing is ever certain.

"My focus initially will naturally be on resolving the company's current issues but equally important, to position it as quickly as possible for long-term success. Fortunately, Westpac has wonderful core customer franchises, each with significant opportunity," said McFarlane.

McFarlane said that he's looking forward to working with interim CEO Peter King while the search for a permanent replacement for Brian Hartzer, who stepped down in late 2019.

"We will work closely over the next two months to ensure an orderly transition. However, we both wanted to move quickly with this announcement to provide certainty to the market and to assure it of our joint commitment to the success of the company," McFarlane said.