Westpac

Westpac was founded in Sydney in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales (BNSW). New South Wales Bank became the first bank in Australia, and Edward Smith Hall was the first cashier and secretary of the bank. In the XIX-th and the beginning of the XX-th century, the bank opened its first branches in Australia and Oceania, in Morton Bay (Brisbane) in 1850, then in Victoria (1851), New Zealand (1861), South Australia (1877) Western Australia (1883), Fiji (1901), Papua New Guinea (1910), and Tasmania (1910).

• 1927: BNSW acquires Bank of Western Australia.
• 1931: BNSW acquired an Australian commercial bank, which had branches in the states of New South Wales and Queensland .
• 1942: BNSW suspended its activities in Papua New Guinea due to the fact that the Japanese army seized cities with branches and agencies. In 1946, BNSW resumed its activities in Papua New Guinea.
• 1968: BNSW joins the consortium Databank Systems Limited for joint processing of service data.
• 1970: BNSW establishes a branch in Kiribati (former Gilbert Islands ) in Tarawa, which also acquired the state savings bank of the Gilbert Islands. In addition, on July 18, 1970, BNSW made an initial public offering on the stock exchange.
• 1971: A branch was established in the New Hebrides .
• 1973: BNSW became the corporate sponsor of the Australian Rescue Service, known today as the Westpac Life Saver.
• 1974: Bank of Tonga is founded - a joint venture of the Bank of New Zealand (20%), BNSW (20%), Bank of Hawaii (20%) and the Government of Tonga (40%)
• 1975: BNSW incorporates its business in Papua New Guinea into New South Wales Bank.
• 1977: BNSW forms Pacific Commercial Bank in Samoa as a joint venture with Bank of Hawaii.
• 1982: BNSW merges with the commercial bank of Australia to form the Westpac Banking Corporation, leaving the corporate “W” logo, which was the logo of the Bank of New South Wales (popularly known as “Wales”).
• 1984: The original agreement between BNSW and the government on the Gilbert and Ellis Islands expires. The WBC and the government of Kiribati form the Kiribati Bank as a joint venture with a ratio of 51% to 49%.
• 1985: The WBC replaced Barclays Bank as the National Bank of Tuvalu (formerly Ellis Islands), with a 40% stake, as well as a 10-year management contract.
• 1988: WBC acquires the European Pacific Banking Corporation in the Cook Islands and HSBC, which was established as a subsidiary in 1973 in the Solomon Islands .
• 1990: WBC acquires half of New Zealand’s bank shares in Bank of Tonga and half of Hawaii’s bank shares.
• 1992: The WBC announces a loss of $ 1.6 billion in capital, which at the time was the largest loss for an Australian corporation. The bank dismisses hundreds of employees. In the process, the WBC was close to bankruptcy, and as a result, it ranks from 1st to 3rd place in Australia's largest banks.
• 1995: WBC sells its stake in the National Bank of Tuvalu to the government of that country, which currently owns the bank.
• 1995: WBC acquired Challenge Bank in Western Australia.
• 1996: WBC Holdings buys TrustBanks NZ, a network of regional banks owned by a community of trusts.
• 1997: WBC acquires Melbourne Bank in Victoria at an estimated price of over $ 1.4 billion and retains the right to the name and logo of the Bank of Melbourne. It was announced that Melbourne Bank would be back in August 2011, with a network of up to 100 branches in Victoria.
• 1998: WBC sold its business in New Caledonia and Tahiti to French conglomerate Societe Generale.
• 2001: The Kiribati government seeks to reduce Westpac’s stake in Kiribati from 51% to 49%, which forces the WBC to sell its shares back to the government.
• 2002: WBC acquires BT Financial Group and Rothschild Australia Asset Management.
• 2004: Reserve Bank of New Zealand demands WBC merger of New Zealand branch network. The WBC has sold its subsidiary in Niue to Bank of South Pacific.
• 2008: Former Chairman of the Board of St.George Bank Gail Kelly is appointed Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. WBC announces its intention to acquire Australia’s 5th largest bank, St. George, for 19 billion dollars. About 95 percent of St. George voted to merge the two banks.
• 2008: On November 17, the Australian Federal Court allowed the merger of Westpac and St. Petersburg banks . George .
• 2011: In July, the Bank of Melbourne began to join the Bank of St. George in Victoria.
• 2012: Westpac announces the reduction of more than 400 jobs in the country and another 150 abroad. This action was a response to the very slow growth over the past few years due to the merger of Westpac with St. Petersburg. George.

• Mortgage loans
• Personal and consumer loans
• Car loans
• Credit cards
• Different types of insurance
• Private Wealth Management
• Investment capital management
• Commercial banking
• Corporate Banking

• Lindsay Maxted (chair)
• Heil Kelly (Chief Executive Officer)
• John Curtis
• Elizabeth Brown
• Gordon Keirns
• Robert elston
• Peter Hawkins
• Ann Picard

• Westpac Bank Official Website
• Official site of the bank Westpac New Zealand
• Bank of Melbourne official website
• Westpac revives Bank of Melbourne: report, Business Spectator 10 March 2011 (not available from 24-05-2013 [2263 days] - history , copy ) .
• Louisson, Simon (7 October 2009). "Westpac loses NZ Court Tax Case". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 8 October 2009.
• Westpac boss hints at more job cuts 3 February 2012.
• Narube, S. and BT Whiteside. 1985. "Financial Institutions and Markets in Fiji". In MT Skully, ed. Financial Institutions and Markets in the Southwest Pacific . London: Macmillan Press.
• Tschoegl, AE 2005. Foreign Banks in the Pacific: A Note. Journal of Pacific History .