Westpac

Westpac presents the full range of banking products and service to personal customers, businesses of all sizes and corporate clients. Business services include accounts, credit cards, business loans, merchant services, insurance, international trade and advice for businesses at every stage of their development. Personal banking services include transaction accounts, credit cards, home loans, personal loans, savings accounts, insurance and investments. Personal customers are also offered expert financial advice on specific situations such as buying homes, student accounts, investing money and planning for the future, including retirement schemes.

Westpac was first established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, based in Sydney, the country’s first official bank. The company faced a major set back in 1821 when the Chief Cashier stole half of the bank’s capital, which was never recovered, but survived and thrived during the gold rush of the mid-19th century. The bank expanded greatly over the next few decades, with new branches opening in Brisbane in 1850, Victoria in 1851, New Zealand 1861, South Australia in 1877, Western Australia in 1883, Fiji in 1901, and Papua New Guinea and Tasmania in 1910.

The bank continued to expand its operations throughout Australia and Oceania during the 20th century with a series of acquisitions including Western Australian Bank in 1927 and Australian Bank of Commerce in 1931. In 1982, The Bank of New South Wales merged with the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd under the new name of Westpac Banking Corp. The name is an abbreviation of Western-Pacific, reflecting the bank’s presence in Australia and Oceania. The new group was the largest banking operation in Australia, and continued to grow with further acquisitions in the 1990s including Challenge Bank Ltd, the Trust Bank New Zealand and the Bank of Melbourne. In December 2008 Westpac merged with St.George Bank, making a much larger multi-brand banking group, one of Australia’s 'big four’ banks and the second-biggest bank in New Zealand.

Westpac Today

Following the 2008 merger with St.George, Westpac currently serves around 12 million customers, the largest bank branch network in Australia, and $678 billion in global assets. Westpac is Australia’s second-largest bank by assets, second-largest provider of home lending and the county’s third-largest credit card provider. From 2004 to 2007, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index identified Westpac as the most sustainable bank in the world.