Small steps for Westpac
Westpac will take more time, and spend more, integrating St George into the bank's operating core Westpac management disclosed at an investor briefing on Friday.
Related stay-in-business investment priorities will also see the bank spend more on technology over the next three years.
The revised plan outlined on Friday does not include a refresh of the core banking platform of Westpac, a project identified as a priority only a year or so ago.
The update of the Westpac core - which the bank defines as its transaction processing platform - is now slated to start from 2014, using the latest version of the system now in use, Hogan, from CSC.
Much-vaunted improvements in service platforms plugged by bank management only five years ago are set for a fresh wave of investment. Call centre and telling staff can expect a "new sales and service platform", the bank said, with both being based on the solutions already in use at St George.
Westpac will replace its online banking platforms, and plans an "integrated online banking platform for retail, business and corporate customers."
One product project the bank labelled "deposit growth" and described as "products and systems to support product growth".
Short-term tasks here include making deposit products available through financial advisers and bundling products differently for superannuation funds.
A related stream of work might relate to the mooted, but recently rather quiet, project to pitch a new bank brand into the market. (Naming plans in the past ranged from Bank of Melbourne to all manner of other zany options.).
Single servicing systems for credit card processing, collections and financial advice are further priority projects.
The retirement of surplus switches is a sixth product priority. (It is not clear if the purchase a new switch is an option, though given the tenor of everything else this seems unlikely.)
"Consolidation and upgrade of date centres" received a mention as one of three "infrastructure" projects listed by Westpac in the briefing.
Cloud computing - a topic of great interest to many banks, including CBA in Australia - did not rate mention.
Westpac put the "total project investment" at $1 billion in each of 2011, 2012 and 2013, and up from $900 million in 2010 and $700 million in 2009.
The bank did not mention the likely level of job losses. Estimates in the weekend newspaper ranges from 625, in the Herald Sun, to "low thousands", in The Sydney Morning Herald.