Briefs: New role for Narev, Wise move, big hit for Kiwi banks 24 February 2021 5:39AM Banking Day staff Briefs, Appointments, Payments, mobile & wallets, Remittance market, Major Banks Former Commonwealth Bank CEO Ian Narev has been appointed CEO of job vacancy website Seek, where he is currently the Chief Operating Officer. He takes over on July 1, although current CEO Andrew Bassat will continue to head up Seek’s investment business. Payments group Transferwise is changing its name, becoming simply ‘Wise’. It says the change reflects that it is no longer just a money transfer provider: it offers an international currency account, a business account and a platform allowing fintech customers (like Monzo, GoCardless and Xero) to use the Wise infrastructure for their own cross border payments. Wise currently processes £4.5bn in payments every month and has 10m customers. KPMG's Financial Institutions Performance Survey shows New Zealand bank profits fell 27.6 per cent in 2020 - a drop of $1.58 billion to $4.14 billion. The fall was the largest in the 10-year history of the survey. This was largely down a 275 per cent increase in impaired asset expenses, paired with a 9 per cent jump in operating expenses.