Westpac Group yesterday confirmed the appointment of Clive Whincup as chief information officer. Whincup joined Westpac in May 2009 as general manager for service delivery from Lloyds Banking Group, where he managed infrastructure and IT operations for Lloyds TSB. He also served as chief information officer for Lloyds' retail bank in the UK. ATM operator iCash Payments may confirm the sale of its Australian automatic teller machine business by tomorrow. The firm requested a trading halt in its shares yesterday. As reported on Tuesday, two potential buyers are rumoured to be in the running. One is ASX-listed EzeATM and the second is a private investor. Lloyds Banking Group Plc is closing its leveraged finance unit in Australia, Bloomberg reported. The bank's existing leveraged loan portfolio of more than A$1 billion will be run down over time and won't be sold to other lenders. Westpac's London-based senior economist, James Shugg, has warned the eurozone crisis is nearing "catastrophic" proportions, The Australian reported. "I've never been as scared about the outlook for [the] global economy, and particularly in Europe, at any time in my past 25 years as an economist," Shugg told a Westpac conference in Rockhampton yesterday.