Westpac’s focus on helping its customers and providing them with the best support and advice across a whole range of their financial needs has contributed to it being named Australian Financial Institution of the Year at Australia’s premier retail financial services awards, the Australian Banking & Finance Awards hosted in Sydney on Thursday (21st May).
Westpac won five awards, including being named Australian Financial Institution of the Year – Major Banks, the top honour of the night, as well as taking home four other great accolades:
- Australian Premium Banking Service Proposition of the Year
- Banking Website/New Online Banking Offering of the Year – Westpac Live
- Innovative Mortgage Product of the Year – One Visit Mortgage
- Best Use of Social Media – Response to Cyclone Marcia
Accepting the award for Australian Financial Institution of the Year, Jason Yetton, Group Executive Westpac Retail & Business Banking said:
“I’m delighted but also humbled by the recognition from Australian Banking & Finance. I always say we’re the best when our people, customers and communities say we are, so it’s terrific to be recognised as the best.
“We are proud to be Australia’s first bank and first company. And this award is testament to our almost 200 year history to helping our customers save more, own their homes, have thriving businesses, protect what matters most and prepare for a strong financial future.
“The awards are a tribute to the effort and passion of our people who work tirelessly to help our customers achieve their goals and provide our customers with solutions to bank 24×7 and ‘on-the-go’ through digital innovation. This success is recognition of all their hard work.
“But we won’t be resting on our laurels as we know how competitive our industry is which is reflected in the calibre of the award finalists’,” said Mr Yetton.
Westpac was recognised for its innovation agenda delivering outstanding customer experiences including:
- Providing best-in-class dedicated Relationship Managers who guide premium clients throughout their financial journey with a seamless experience and the best of what Westpac has to offer including exclusive access to a team of specialist phone-based bankers available 24/7, Connect Now video conference capabilities, mobile enabled bankers and a seamless off and onshore proposition for migrants – helping with multi-lingual bankers, ATMs, international offices and support throughout the entire migration journey.
- Intuitive, easy to use digital banking through the launch of its multi-award-winning digital platform ‘Westpac Live’. With over 3.2 million customers now using Westpac Live, it scales from personal customers with one account, to large organisations with complex banking needs, providing banking ‘on the go’.
- Simplified products and processes, including introducing a ‘one visit mortgage’ which is a tool that enables Westpac’s lenders to provide customers with unconditional approval in one visit ensuring they get the home they really want. Once the information from the customer profile is automatically compiled the approval is returned within 60 seconds.
- Helping customers impacted by Cyclone Marcia in Northern Queensland. During the cyclone in February 2015 Westpac utilised Facebook’s improved geo-targeting for posts to reach out to the areas affected and worked with our Westpac’s regional Branch network teams to deliver messaging around what services were affected and what Westpac was doing to help through its service channels and on the ground.