Westpac has culture that is overly bureaucratic and process-driven, which results in staff getting entangled in complexity rather than taking "ownership," a report commissioned by the bank's board says.
The country's second-biggest bank on Thursday released its "self-assessment" of its culture and governance. All big financial institutions were required to do conduct this exercise after a scathing inquiry into CBA last year.
The report paints a picture of a culture that is biased to "process over outcomes," with a tendency to create complexity for its own sake.
"There is a propensity in Westpac to believe that "more is more": more analysis, more information, more documentation, more iteration of papers, more sign-offs, more meetings, more policies, more frameworks, more "stuff" – frequently layered on without offsetting reduction or rationalisation," the report says.
"This can add rigour and thoroughness, but also unnecessary complexity, slow or impeded execution on a range of fronts, and challenges to cognition and thinking space."
"Many employees resign themselves to complexity as the natural state of affairs at Westpac, and their response to that complexity is often to wrap more complexity around it – potentially adding risk in the process."
The 131 page report, commissioned by the board last year, identifies three strands of Westpac's "corporate DNA". These are: a tendency to cultivate complexity; the privileging of "conceptual work over execution and implementation'; and an "imperative for safety" after the bank nearly collapsed in the early 1990s.
Some of its recommendations include providing more training on conduct risk; reviewing compliance policies; and improving internal reporting of systemic issues.
Clancy Yeates