Westpac will retain its Pacific banking businesses, after spending the past three years trying to sell them.

The bank announced yesterday that it had ended the sales process for Westpac Fiji and Westpac Bank PNG Ltd and would keep both businesses.

It said it would invest in improvements to their digital and service capabilities and “deliver important community programs in financial literacy and education”.

The businesses were earmarked for sale in 2020, when Westpac set up a specialist business unit to handle the divestment of non-core and underperforming operations.

In 2021, Papua New Guinea’s Independent Consumer and Competition Commission blocked the sale of the businesses to Kina Securities. The sale price was A$420 million.

Under the asset divestment program, Westpac has sold Advance Asset Management, BT personal and corporate superannuation funds, Westpac Life Insurance Services, vendor finance business Strategic Alliances, its general insurance business, a lenders mortgage insurance business and a motor dealer finance and novated leasing business.

It has sold its shares in fund manager Pendal Group (formerly a subsidiary BT Investment Management) and its 10.7 per cent stake in Zip.

The bank hit another roadblock with the sale of 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.

Panorama and Asgard have A$131 billion in funds under administration and service more than 350,000 investors. More than 7800 advisers use the platforms.

Businesses still in the specialist business unit include a margin lending unit with balances of $1.2 billion and a $5.4 billion auto finance business.