Australia

When Brian Hartzer took over from Gail Kelly at Westpac in 2015, he signalled a big push into digital to help get costs down, flagging a near A$1 billion ($760 million) investment in new efficiency technologies. Almost three years on, Westpac’s digital strategy looks a lot like a prudent insurance policy, an attempt to future-proof itself against technology disruption.

Wealthy Australians have never much availed themselves of private banks in the way that much of the rest of the world understands and uses them. Indeed, a prevailing view holds that egalitarian Australians don’t see themselves as wealthy, when they clearly are.

UBS is Australia’s go-to foreign bank for dealmakers. It dominates the Australian capital markets league tables, with an average share of 15% to 20% across the component sectors. In M&A, UBS topped out with a 20% market share.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s boss Mike Hirst may well be the George C. Scott of Australian banking.

ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott attracted headlines in 2016 by pulling his firm out of the small and medium-sized enterprise sectors of five of Asia’s booming markets, including Indonesia and Vietnam. A year later, Asia’s loss is Australia’s gain as ANZ lasers in on thriving small businesses in its home market.

The so-called millionaires’ factory of Macquarie Group motored on in 2017, largely as it has for the last decade and more, at the top of its game.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank gets what might be called the Steve Bradbury award, named after the Australian skater who won an Olympic gold medal when his highly ranked competitors piled into each other just before the finishing line.

If Australian banking needs a fundamental shake-up, it may come from insiders-turned-outsiders, and few fit that bill better than Jason Yetton at SocietyOne

The bank has found a model that puts the local community first – feeding prosperity, not feeding off it as the big four do, says chief executive Mike Hirst