Briefs: Westpac's Whitfield tipped to resign, RBA forecasting under the spotlight, UBS Australia sel 26 May 2015 3:48PM Banking Day staff Briefs, Westpac's head of institutional banking Rob Whitfield is expected to resign this week, according to the Australian Financial Review. Whitfield has been at the bank since 1986,when he joined as a cadet. The AFR is speculating that the prime candidate to replace him is Cathryn Carver, ANZ's senior managing director of international and institutional banking. A review of the Reserve Bank's economic forecasting has criticised the central bank for relying too much on "gut feel", according to the Australian Financial Review. The RBA's economic modelling process has been reviewed by former RBA board member Adrian Pagan and the head of research and statistics at the US Federal Reserve, David Wilcox. The review is the first for over a decade. UBS Australia is divesting its wealth management division by way of a management buyout. Mike Chisholm, the bank's local head of wealth, will head the new business, which is to be called Crestone Wealth Management. There has been speculation about the future of the business for some time. Westpac has launched an issue of residential mortgage-backed securities, seeking A$750 million of funding. Series 2015-1 WST Trust is backed by a pool of 2778 loans, which have an average loan-to-valuation ratio 62.8 per cent. Investment loans make up 23.8 per cent of the pool. National Australia bank confirmed that the new general manager for financial planning arm Godfrey Pembroke would be Alan Logan. He replaces Sean Allen who left in April after more than two years in the job. Logan has held executive positions at ANZ Advice & Distribution, MLC National Practice Management, Ansett Airlines and BT Financial Group. Finance company Thorn Group has appointed Andrew Stevens as a non-executive director. Stevens was managing director of IBM Australia and New Zealand for three years years and before that led the PricewaterhouseCoopers consulting business in the Asia Pacific. Thorn chair Jocelyn Morton said she was looking forward to the technology expertise that Stevens would bring to the board.