Bendigo Bank chief executive Marnie Baker yesterday signalled an intensification of the company’s attack on costs after unveiling an organisational revamp that will consolidate the business and rural banking divisions.
In a deftly worded statement to the ASX, the company also highlighted it would sharpen its focus on internal efficiency by creating a new executive role of chief operating officer to “improve productivity across the bank”.
The organisational restructure comes as Bendigo accelerates its digital transformation program, which is partly aimed at lowering the average cost base of the bank.
Bendigo is moving aggressively to deepen its digital banking capabilities following the recent buyout of the UP banking joint venture and further investment in the Tic:Toc loan origination platform.
The group is also retiring niche brands such as Delphi Bank and looking to offload non-core investments including the Homesafe reverse loan operation.
Bendigo has set a medium term target of lowering its groupwide cost to income ratio to 50 percent from the existing level of 60.3 per cent.
The revamp of the bank’s operating structure will result in the immediate departure of Alexandra Gartmann from the company.
Gartmann has led the rural banking division since October 2015.
Bruce Speirs, the current head of the business banking division, has been appointed to fill the newly created role of chief operating officer.
The bank has embarked on a search for an executive to take the reins of the merged business and rural banking divisions.
“Both the Rural Bank and Business Banking businesses have been positive growth and transformation stories for us,” said Baker.
“Bringing the businesses together will help us fast track our transformation agenda and achieve our goal of becoming a bigger, better and stronger bank for our customers and the communities we serve.”
The organisational revamp is the second undertaken by Baker since she was appointed CEO in July 2018.
The bank’s renewed focus on “streamlining operations” and “delivering greater efficiencies” could put it on a collision course with the Finance Sector Union which last year campaigned against cuts to staff in regional and metropolitan branches.
In 2021 Bendigo slashed its full time-equivalent headcount by 6 per cent or 293 roles to 4483.
That trend is likely to intensify this year given Baker’s move to consolidate brands and the operating structure of the bank and the methodology used by the board to determine the share-based remuneration paid to senior executives.
According to disclosures in the last two annual reports the formula for determining the long term bonuses of executives is weighted 50 per cent to performance on cost management, while success in growing loans and deposits carries only a 25 per cent weight.