Speaking on the economy, Miller was relatively upbeat, saying the share of home loan customers who are 90 days behind on their repayments continued to fall. In business banking, he said stress levels were also improving and the bank had seen “very encouraging” demand for credit.
Miller, who took the reins as Westpac chief in December, is leading the country’s oldest bank as the big four face pressure on profit margins in the critical mortgage market from rivals such as Macquarie Group, as well as growing competition in business lending.
He said part of the bank’s growth strategy was to provide more banking services to its existing 10 million customers – of whom only a third view Westpac as their main financial institution. To this end, he said Westpac planned to hire more customer-facing bankers, while it is also looking to improve its app.
Miller also flagged some of Westpac’s proposals for the federal government’s economic roundtable next month – which included encouraging one million people to move to regional centres; increasing income tax thresholds in line with inflation; and making regulatory changes to encourage the building of more affordable homes.
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Miller made the comments in a wide-ranging on-stage interview with Sean Aylmer, a co-host of the Fear & Greed podcast and a former editor-in-chief of the Sydney Morning Herald.
The discussion also touched on the media scrutiny of National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Irvine, after The Australian Financial Review reported two weeks ago that major investors had raised concerns about Irvine’s management style and drinking at customer meetings and events with the bank’s directors.
Miller said on Wednesday that he thought the episode was unfair on the NAB boss, while adding that he expected to be in the spotlight as the chief executive of a major bank.
“I thought that was very unfair on Andrew, to be honest with you,” Miller said.
“Having said that, I always expected that there would be an element of limelight because you are representing this company, and I always thought that it would be quite an important responsibility in terms of how you conduct yourself and how you therefore needed to present yourself, and you would be constantly looked at and… examined as to what you were doing.”
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