Westpac, one of Australia’s top four banks, has announced a raft of radical management changes which will see its wealth management operations come under Hartzer's leadership, to accelerate the next phase of its strategy.

Brian Hartzer will lead Australian Financial Services, which encompasses Westpac’s wealth management arm BT Financial Group, Westpac retail and business banking, St George Banking Group, and banking products and risk management. Hartzer will start the role next year.

Before joining RBS in 2009, Hartzer was ANZ’s CEO of Australia, covering all of that bank's domestic retail and commercial banking businesses and strategy for the retail and wealth management businesses across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and the Pacific.

One of the UK's most well-respected private banking figures, Hartzer is currently chairman of the retail committee of the British Bankers’ Association and a director of Coutts & Co in the UK. At RBS, he was a member of the group executive committee, responsible for rebuilding the bank's core Natwest and RBS retail franchises, its global Coutts Private Banking business, and the restructure of its Irish Ulster Bank subsidiary.

Westpac’s new structure will see the group executives of Westpac retail & business banking, St. George Banking Group and BT Financial Group report to Hartzer.

The second division, Group Services, encompasses technology, banking operations, property services and legal. The division will be led by John Arthur, group chief operating officer, who joined the bank in 2008. Working with Arthur will be Bob McKinnon, who, having overseen the rebuilding of technology capability at Westpac, has decided to step back from a full-time group executive role. McKinnon will remain with Westpac as enterprise executive in the group services division, reporting to Arthur.

Both Hartzer and Arthur report to Gail Kelly, chief executive of Westpac. She said in a statement that today’s announcements are a key element of the next phase in Westpac’s drive to become Australia’s leading financial services organisation.

“Over the past four years the Westpac Group has become a fundamentally stronger company. We have successfully implemented the largest financial services merger in Australia’s history, put in place a customer relationship focused business strategy and a distinctive multi-brand approach. We now have a strong platform to drive the next phase of our strategy,” she said.

The bank said in its full year results presentation published last week that it is focusing on cross-selling between its wealth division and other parts of the bank. It wants to “deepen customer relationships with a particular focus on deposits, payments, trade and wealth cross-sell.”

Kelly added: “The inclusion of BT Financial Group as a part of AFS will build on the significant progress already made in effectively linking banking and wealth at the front-line, which has been demonstrated by strong cross-sell performance in recent years.”

AFS will also include the product responsibilities for Australian banking. Peter Clare, group executive of product & operations, will be moving to the new role of chief operating officer, AFS. Meanwhile to facilitate the transition to the AFS division, Peter Hanlon, group executive of transformation and productivity, will be appointed immediately as CEO of AFS until Hartzer takes up the role next year.

Further executive changes

Meanwhile Rob Coombe, formerly group executive of Westpac retail & business banking, has decided to leave the group to pursue other opportunities. Coombe worked for many years in BT, where he developed products and platforms including the innovative BT Super for Life, said Kelly.

He is replaced by Jason Yetton who has had a 20 year career within the Westpac Group. “Jason played a particularly important role in developing the distribution strategy for our Westpac Retail Bank, including Westpac Local, and then leading its implementation,” Kelly added.

The new structure will take effect immediately. Rob Chapman and Brad Cooper remain as group executives responsible for St.George Banking Group and BT Financial Group respectively.