The Australian Shareholders Association says Peter Hawkins, who is a director of both Westpac and Liberty Financial, may have to choose one board and leave the other.Hawkins joined the Westpac board in 2008, while also serving on the Liberty board.At that time, Liberty was predominantly a "low doc" lender to borrowers who could not get loans from the major banks.But, as reported in Banking Day yesterday, during the past four years Liberty has evolved into more of a full service financial firm. It now competes against Westpac in standard home loans, business lending, car and fleet finance, and retail investments, in both Australia and New Zealand.The chief executive of the Australian Shareholders' Association, Vas Kolesnikoff, said yesterday that his organisation would call on Westpac to explain the process which had allowed Hawkins to continue as a director of both companies."We're not saying that Mr Hawkins is doing the wrong thing,'' Kolesnikoff said."Unfortunately for him, he is in a difficult situation because the change in Liberty's business strategy over time has caused two companies of which he is a director to become competitors in the same markets."If Mr Hawkins, the Westpac board and shareholders can't be appropriately satisfied about how his potential conflicts of interest are managed, then he may have to make a choice between the two companies."Last week, a Westpac spokesman defended Hawkins' position on the bank's board on the grounds that his Liberty directorship had been disclosed in annual reports since 2009."If that is the only disclosure made by the bank, then it is fair to say they should make further comment now or at the annual meeting," Kolesnikoff said.The ASA wants Westpac to explain to shareholders the reasons why it is comfortable that Hawkins doesn't use any Westpac information to help Liberty."Liberty shareholders would expect [him] to use all his skill and knowledge to benefit Liberty in [the] development of its strategy,'' Kolesnikoff said."Similarly, Westpac shareholders would expect Mr Hawkins to use his knowledge of smaller lenders to Westpac's advantage."Kolesnikoff described Hawkins as a highly regarded director. "This is not an issue of a director not performing, but one of whether directors are beyond reproach."Westpac holds its annual meeting in Sydney on December 13.