Wealth executive to run Westpac's expanded business bank
Westpac has appointed the former head of wealth management at HSBC in Hong Kong to lead its reconstituted business division.Yesterday the bank announced that Guilherme Lima would take on the role of chief executive of the business division.Lima's CV, which spans a 22-year career in banking and consulting, includes experience with Citigroup in Brazil, a McKinsey partnership and a number of roles with HSBC, including group head of strategy.Westpac outlined a restructure in March, when it announced that it was getting out of personal financial advice. It sold the servicing rights to its book of advice customers in BT Financial Advice. The remaining parts of BT Financial Group are being broken up, with the investment platform business, Panorama, superannuation and private wealth going into the business banking division.The insurance business is moving into the consumer banking division.Lima is taking up a critical position at the bank, which is pinning its hopes on the Panorama and private wealth businesses to drive growth in wealth. It claims that Panorama is the fastest growing administration platform in the market, with most of its recent growth coming from independent financial advisers.Private wealth client numbers have grown from 27,000 in 2014 to 31,000 last year. It has been the biggest contributor to BT Financial Group's earnings.