WESTPAC Banking Corporation (WBC), the Australia-based multinational financial services company, intends to focus in Victoria by relaunching Bank of Melbourne brand, reported the Herald Sun.
WBC is adopting a multi-pronged strategy to increase its share of the personal banking market across a range of customer segments. It aims to stay ahead of the rivals such as NAB, ANZ, U-Bank and the Commonwealth Bank in a price war for new deposits, as approximately $150bn term wholesale funding lines are going to expire by the end of June 2011.
“Like the other banks, Westpac’s focus is on quickly building up its retail deposits to better manage its cost of funds in the medium term. The idea is to use the Bank of Melbourne as an online deposit store with price-leading offers,” reported the newspaper citing a Westpac insider.
Reportedly, David Morgan, former CEO of Westpac, had dumped the brand of Bank of Melbourne in 2000 after it was taken over in 1997 and closed around 400 branches across the nation.
