Westpac details tech-focused investment roadmap

Westpac has revealed plans to increase its annual investment spending by 20% to around $1.3 billion, focusing its investments on technology and digital capabilities.

CEO Brian Hartzer affirmed the bank’s target of achieving a return of investment of around 15% and announced a new performance target of attracting 1 million new customers within three years.

“We are increasing our annual investment by around $200m to $1.3 billion directed towards growth, service and efficiency initiatives,” he said.

“This means concentrating our spend on technology, on digital, on simplification, as we hone our focus on service. By investing in digital, we can use technology to redesign the customer experience, making things simpler, easier and better for our customers and our people.”

As part of the initiative the bank plans to invest in the development of a new customer service hub to give the group an integrated view of the customer and their needs.

Westpac also plans to continue investing in deploying new-look branches, which are set to account for 55% of its branch network by 2018.

Hartzer said the initiative is aimed at addressing the fact that banking is undergoing a transformational change as a result of new technologies and changing customer expectations.

Pictured: Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer. Image courtesy of Westpac.