Westpac tidies up NZ outsourcing practices
Westpac in New Zealand has resolved most of the issues uncovered on non-compliance with the regulator's outsourcing policy but is still working to add technical and legal controls in relation to one product.The outsourced automated payment solutions product is supplied to its New Zealand operation by Westpac Banking Corp and is to a small number of Westpac NZ's business customers. According to Westpac, the reliability of the systems used for the product is not an issue, but it is not in compliance with the Reserve Bank of NZ's outsourcing policy requirements.Westpac is now working to add a back-up system and legal controls to ensure it is compliant with the regulator's norms.As reported earlier, a review of the structure of Westpac's operating model, completed in September 2009, revealed the bank was also not complying with section 11 of the operating model that relates to outsourcing policy.Westpac revealed that it fixed some of the issues and thus complied with all the conditions, except two, as of December 2009. Subsequently it also resolved one of the two remaining issues.Separately, Westpac disclosed it is still in discussion with the Reserve Bank of NZ, following the completion of an independent review of the structure of the operating model and said this may result in operating model and governance changes.