Succession shambles
Australia's biggest banks are increasingly looking outside their own walls to fill the most senior roles. That's not how it's supposed to work.
The single biggest priority for a well-functioning corporate board is hiring and firing a chief executive. And one of the biggest priorities for that CEO is to build bench strength, so a company can promote a successor from within. Australia’s biggest banks are failing on the latter.
The last year in banking has been characterised by executive upheaval, with three of the big four appointing relative outsiders as their new CEOs. National Australia Bank’s Andrew Irvine, who hails from Canada, had been at the bank a little more than three years. Westpac chose Anthony Miller, who has spent most of his career at Goldman Sachs, while ANZ went for Nuno Matos, a Portuguese private banker who has never worked in Australia.
As Citi said in a note to clients after the industry’s latest round of musical chairs this week, “we think it interesting that banks are increasingly looking to external talent to fill roles”.
Headhunters have a different view of the situation. “It’s just not the case the local talent isn’t there but, for whatever reason, it’s not always been given the chance,” said one executive recruiter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their relationships with the big four.
