Westpac, like many banks, finds it tough to escape the restrictive muscles of a model that, let's face it, regards computing power as costly and messages as requiring truncation. Above all, processes need to be queued, and delayed, and done in a fashion that suited the workday rhythms of a time when those now retiring were only just entering the workforce.
These business processes just do not wash, and no credible managers of banks can plan long-range investments without tackling an obvious need, both of customers and the bank.
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Batch processing of payments is the worst feature of a bank's product
offering, but is a hangover from the era when computer systems were first installed.
Legacy batch computing systems mean payments initiated after cut off on a Friday may not reach their destination until late on the following Monday. It's a far cry from the real-time processing promised by nimbler payment processors.
There are exceptions such as the most critical business (and bank) payments, and many financial market payments, all of which do receive "real time" processing, or close to it. But few customers are offered this option by their banks.
This clunky approach to consumer payments may be fine for Centrelink, tax and some direct debits but it's not much of a service in an age when bank customers expect near real-time execution on many other transactions.
The enforced waiting on payments thus looks increasingly archaic and proves a real drag on productivity.
Once again, there is no certainty that the present Westpac technology rethink will reach the point of embracing an improvement in customer service standards - all that can be said is that the 2009 pathway is no longer of much use.
Westpac's supplier options are similar to those of most banks shopping for a
serious, contemporary, makeover of their most essential systems.
Besides CSC, with its Hogan core banking system, which is currently in use by Westpac, other key players include SAP, Infosys, Tata and Temenos.
It seems likely that all should expect a visit from Westpac's tyre kickers some time soon.