Anthony Miller

I walked into a company that was very sombre, or traumatised might be another way to describe it, because what sort of stands out about Westpac since I've been there is how much affection the team, the employees have for the company.

And so

to be accused and to be found guilty.

Oh, real disappointment about how did we find ourselves in this position.

So that therefore set it up for the challenge that was ahead, which is to change the way we did things and ensure that we met a standard in terms of how we ran the company that

meant that would never happen again.

And that's been that real commitment that everyone had, which is we just cannot let this happen again, so let's change the way we do things.

And so people reacted in the right way, albeit it was really, really challenging in those first year or two.

I think what happened with AUSTRAC certainly meant that we had to change and everyone recognised that.

And so there was a four-year program of work to change the way we did things.

And, you know, they were peddicking some outstanding leadership in getting us through that.

And I was fortunate enough to take over as Chief Executive at the tail end of that process.

And it's definitely the case that we learnt from that particular challenge.

along with the rest of the industry, we certainly got found out in the context of what was brought about, you know, revealed by the Royal Commission.

And so, yeah, that was a combination of, you know, three or four very difficult years for Westpac.

And as I said, the pride that people had in the company, they were so heartbroken that the company had not met the standards people expected, as identified in the Royal Commission, as identified by Austrac.

So that certainly gave us the, you know, galvanised the workforce to really let's change the way we do things.

And

Well, it certainly, I would never wish it on anyone, but to the extent that you have a challenge set or a crisis thrown upon you, not letting it go to waste was, I think, what we've done and what the team at Westpac has done, which is we fundamentally changed the way we run the company, the way we operate things, the way we go about things, the way we manage risk.

And so I think we're in a much better place than where we were, albeit you would wish that we could have identified that and realised that well before.