Westpac chief executive Peter King has outlined an ambitious technology investment program for the next couple of years, as the bank looks to move on from years focusing on risk management fixes, customer remediation programs and asset sales. Speaking at the presentation of the bank’s 2022/23 results yesterday, King said the bank would spend A$4 billion over the next few years cutting its “tech stack” from 180 systems to 60. He said the change would make the bank more efficient and reduce operational risk, which has plagued it over the years. It would also address cost and service issues that have lingered on from past acquisitions. Westpac’s investment budget in the year to September was $1.9 billion. But only 38 per cent of that was directed towards growth and productivity, while 62 per cent was focused on risk and regulatory initiatives. The bank passed several milestones this year and King believes it can put more of its investment spend into growth and productivity. It has completed its business divestments, selling 10 of the businesses it placed in a specialist business unit in 2020.  It will retain its Pacific banking businesses, Westpac Fiji and Westpac Bank PNG Ltd, after Papua New Guinea’s Independent Consumer and Competition Commission blocked the sale of the businesses to Kina Securities. Westpac will also retain its investment administration services, BT Panorama and Asgard. The bank announced in June that after concluding a competitive sales process, it had decided to retain and continue to invest in the businesses. The bank reached another milestone during the September quarter, when it completed the implementation of all 354 activities under its CORE program. The program was established in 2020 after APRA accepted an enforceable undertaking from the bank to fix significant risk management shortcomings. Its independent reviewer Promontory Australia said the program changes still have to be embedded and monitored but the investment side of the program has been completed. The investments the bank made in growth and productivity projects in the past year were mostly directed at the digitisation of banking services and the integration of brands and distribution channels. It launched a new mortgage origination platform, consolidating origination across all brands and distribution channels and reducing approval and processing times. It upgraded the Westpac app, with new personal financial management tools. It launched EFTPOS Air, which allows small business customers to take payments via their Android devices and iPhones. And it did development work on its corporate cash management platform. On the regulatory and risk management send side, it launched several scam protection measures and strengthened data oversight.