At the Macquarie operational update, presented to analysts and investors earlier this week, the group's head of banking and financial services, Greg Ward, observed that the bank had been shifting to an Australia focus, while pushing ahead with its technology upgrade. Macquarie's core banking projects - which have started with mortgages and deposits - are slated to cost around A$230 million, with $130 million already expensed. Ward said the remaining $100 million allocated to the project is set to be amortised over the next seven years. Ward, who had been the group's long-term CFO before moving to deputy CEO and then head of BFS three years ago, was asked about the break-up of expenses to get a result from this level of innovation spend. "That depends on definition [of innovation]", he said, warning analysts "don't get too caught up on it".  He then suggested an approximate level of 20 per cent of tech spend, in areas such as robo advice.In his presentation, Ward repeated comments made by his colleagues in the final part of 2016, that implementing technologies similar to those used in Netflix were set to deliver a more personalised banking service.On Macquarie's mortgage business, Ward said the focus was on trying to build a sustainable high quality profitable business, rather than carving out market share.He said deposit growth approximated ten per cent in recent years, likewise for Macquarie's business bank, which aims to provide a "full suite of products for professional segment SME clients" such as real estate agents, lawyers, accountants, engineers - aiming to be "really present" in a limited number of industries to build deep expertise in those areas.Ward cited an East and Partners report showing a relatively high level of dissatisfaction with business bankers, before adding" That's not been not our experience: client retention rate of 92 pc over the past five years".As far as cost to income ratios are concerned, Ward said that Macquarie would not be lining up with the smaller banks, nor even against the majors. Instead Macquarie was measuring itself against fintechs "as that is where the industry is heading", rather than "worrying about where it's been."