Westpac's board is becoming restless over the bank's direction, with talk circulating of plans to replace the chief executive, Gail Kelly, this year.The board's discontent seems to centre around the lacklustre management of integration projects relating to the 2008 takeover of St George Bank. Central to its disappointment in the CEO's work was the need, late last year, to abandon or defer costly work on projects previously deemed as priorities by management, such as updating Westpac's core banking platform.The board chose Kelly as chief executive, in August 2007, luring her from the job of CEO at St George Bank. She started work at Westpac in February 2008.The boards of Westpac and St George then quickly agreed terms for a merger of the two banks.Kelly's two years at the helm span the period of the credit shock, a time of opportunity for major banks as smaller banks, foreign banks and non-bank competitors faded as a competitive force.While effective in lifting market share, and also successful in containing the loss of customers at St George following the takeover, the bank has made little progress in renovating Westpac's retail banking franchise. It has fared better in funds management where BT has carved out a reputation as an innovator.Westpac is a laggard on measures of shareholder value, at least relative to those of Commonwealth Bank, the other bank to secure major gains in market share over the course of the financial crisis.When Kelly joined Westpac the bank's share price was $26.52. Two years later the share price is $22.06, a decline of 17 per cent. Over the same period, ANZ's share price declined 15 per cent, to $22.83 from $26.89. NAB's declined 33 per cent, to $23.89.Commonwealth limited the decline in its share value over two years to just two per cent, to $50.30.Talk began to circulate before Christmas of steps being taken by the board to engage head-hunters to scout for potential chief executives for the bank. Talk of this plan is now becoming more widespread in Westpac circles.The talk suggests the board plans to select a new CEO by the second half of 2011. Search firm Egon Zehnder is believed to have a mandate from Ted Evans, chair of the Westpac board, to conduct the search. The Melbourne office of Egon Zehnder undertook the search, in 2007 that led to the hiring of Kelly, who replaced David Morgan at Westpac.Yesterday Banking Day asked Westpac's investor relations and media relations teams for a response, but the bank made no reply prior to publication this morning.