BOQ banker becomes a cash convert
Bank of Queensland has lost another of its top executives with the resignation yesterday of Brendan White, group executive BOQ Business. After six years with BOQ White is moving out of banking and into payday lending as CEO of ASX-listed Cash Converters.The announcement came one day after the chief executive officer Jon Sutton flagged his immediate departure for health reasons.White will be filling a vacancy that was very suddenly opened up mid-year when self-confessed business transformation and cultural change leader, Cash Converters CEO Mark Reid, abruptly resigned. Admittedly, the company's year didn't start well, with Cash Converters under fire for being too enthusiastic with its debt collection actions.In May CCV agreed to make a A$650,000 community benefit payment to help fund the National Debt Helpline after ASC found it breached guidelines on debt collection practices, including by too frequently contacting consumers.Less than two years earlier Cash Converters had agreed to refund $10.8 million to consumers who received small amount loans as well as to pay a $1.35 million penalty following the issuing of infringement notices by ASIC.The company is also dealing with a government enquiry into payday lending and a share price which has nosedived from over $1 per share in 2015 to flatline at just over $0.30 cents a shore form most of them past 2 years - and currently trading at 25 cents.White, whose pay and incentives at BOQ was around $1.6 million can look forward to a base pay of $720,000, plus superannuation and a sign-on fee of almost $1.3 million, partly to compensate him for "any incentives from his previous employer that [he] forfeits. This will be partly cash and partly shares in Cash Converters that will vest over the next three years."BOQ's announcement to the ASX was very clear on White's notice period, which extends until March 2019. Cash Converters' announcement of his appointment explained it slightly differently: "Mr. White will commence as CEO on a rolling contract dated 5 December 2018 and is expected to begin work in March 2019."White's departure from BOQ continues the slow exit of a number of ex-CBA executives at the bank, many of whom had been drawn there by former CBA executive Stuart Grimshaw, as was Sutton (who was CEO of Bankwest before moving to BOQ). Grimshaw left BOQ to take on the role of CEO of US payday lender EZCORP, which has a large shareholding in Cash Converters - large enough for Grimshaw to also be chairman of the Australian payday lender - and to tap White again. Negotiations reportedly have been going on since August.Still remaining at BOQ are the bank's chief risk officer Peter Deans and its head of retail banking Lyn McGrath, who also worked at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Plus there's Greg Pink, general manager SME, corporate, property and agribusiness at BOQ who was recruited from CBA by White.