2025 Annual General Meeting - CEO's Address

ASX RELEASE


Westpac Banking Corporation
Level 18, 275 Kent Street
Sydney, NSW, 2000



11 December 2025

2025 Annual General Meeting – CEO’s Address


In accordance with ASX Listing Rule 3.13.3, Westpac Banking Corporation
(“Westpac”) attaches the Chief Executive Officer’s address to be delivered at
Westpac’s 2025 Annual General Meeting.









For further information:

Hayden Cooper Justin McCarthy
Group Head of Media Relations General Manager, Investor Relations
0402 393 619 0422 800 321


This document has been authorised for release by Tim Hartin, Company Secretary.

1

Westpac 2025 Annual General Meeting
Chief Executive Officer’s address

Thank you Chairman.

Good morning and welcome to all our shareholders.

It’s a privilege to be here today to share how we’re building a stronger, more sustainable
Westpac.

A key focus in my first year as CEO has been ensuring we have the right structures and
people in place to lead Westpac towards becoming a more resilient, customer-focused
bank.

We’re shaping a culture that moves faster, with a relentless focus on execution and
customer service.

Delivering for customers is critical to our success – by improving our standard of
service, and then delivering that standard consistently, we build trust and earn customer
loyalty.

If we do this well, we will achieve our ambition to be our customers’ number one bank
and partner through life and thus grow the business and returns for shareholders.

In addition to lifting and sustaining service levels to our customers, we are pursuing a
growth and transformation agenda, enabled by a robust balance sheet and strong
capital position.

We want to be the number one bank in the marketplace and as we go after this, we are
guided by five priorities.

Getting to number one will take some time but if we stay focused and deliver on these
priorities, we will get there.

We’re committed to relentless execution and are holding ourselves accountable with
clear targets and transparent reporting. And we’ll keep being honest with each of you
about where we stand, the challenges we face and the progress we’re making.

Financial performance

Turning to this year’s performance, it has been a solid year at Westpac.

We have a very strong balance sheet and saw great momentum in our target segments.

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Net profit was $7 billion, representing a return on tangible equity of 11% excluding
notable items.

This reflects the balance we’ve struck between delivering returns while investing for the
future.

Our revenue grew 4% and this was supported by solid lending and deposit growth.

Some of the highlights included:

• 10% growth in our Consumer and Institutional division deposits, reflecting the
quality of our consumer business and customer base;

• A 15% increase in business lending, with solid growth in health, professional
services, and agriculture; and

• Institutional lending growth of 17%.

Looking at costs, we know managing this effectively is essential. The 9% rise in
expenses this year was driven by higher staff and technology costs, as well as the
UNITE program and the decision we made to invest in more bankers and additional
growth projects.

It also included a restructuring charge to help support productivity.

We are reducing expenses by structurally lowering the cost of running the bank through
UNITE.

We’re targeting by FY29, a cost-to-income ratio below the peer average and a return on
tangible equity above the peer average.

We acknowledge there is a lot of work ahead of us to achieve these objectives.

Customers

Our service proposition is at the heart of what we do. Our approach is to bring the whole
bank to our 13 million customers – meeting and serving them where and how they want.

We strive to earn their trust and to look after their entire banking needs.

We are here to support customers through the cycle. We provided 46,000 hardship
packages this year to those experiencing financial challenges. Pleasingly, three
quarters of these customers needed only short-term support for up to three months.

3

Building trust and supporting our customers also means tackling issues affecting our
customers and Australians more broadly. This includes scams, which are a national
challenge, and require all parts of the “eco-system” to play their part.

Over the past five years we have spent more than $500 million to combat scams and
fraud, including investing in new detection and prevention measures to protect
customers.

This includes recent innovations such as SafeCall, SafeBlock and Confirmation of
Payee, which have all contributed to a 21% decline in scam losses this year and helped
to save customers from losing over $360 million to scammers.

What’s clear to me is that Westpac, and the other banks, can’t solve the scams scourge
alone. As I mentioned, to help keep Australians safe we need more action from other
players in the ecosystem, including social media companies like Meta.

In addition to adding new innovative scam defences, we’re also lifting engagement and
loyalty through our award-winning banking app, refreshed brand positioning and
community partnerships.

Service quality in critical customer moments is improving. Our mortgage processing
times have halved, with most home loan applications decisioned within five days.

We’re also processing business loans faster through our new digital lending platform,
BizEdge, which has already handled $5 billion in applications, while continuing to
expand our banker presence.

We doubled our Women in Business commitment to $1 billion, which has supported
more than 1,800 entrepreneurial women-founded businesses since inception.

For institutional clients, we’re investing in the best bankers to be number one in our
target markets.

This week we commenced our pilot for Westpac One, our cloud-based digital platform
that will transform how institutional customers manage their liquidity, payments and FX.

We plan to progressively roll out the capabilities within the platform over the next 36
months.

Finally, to our customers here today, who we engaged to support this year’s AGM –
MUFG, Bread & Butter Project and Indigo. Thank you for being customers of Westpac.
We truly appreciate our partnerships.

4

People

We are investing in technology programs, AI and the workforce of the future – however
this is a people business and our priority is to have the best team giving their best
everyday.

We aim to be the number one place to work and to attract and retain the best bankers
and talent.

Despite significant change this year, employee engagement remains in the top quartile
globally.

Our latest survey confirms this, with more than 70,000 comments captured. This is
feedback that helps us keep improving.

Flexible working is a big part of that. We’re committed to helping people work in ways
that enables them to perform at their best.

We are focused on outcomes and the right level of team connections to deliver for our
customers.

We’ve enhanced our employee proposition with four wellbeing days and a wide range of
leave options to support every stage of life.

Our people are engaged, working to lift our customer service and challenging us to
deliver UNITE and set the bank up for the future.

Risk

Risk management underpins resilience and long-term shareholder value.

This year, we have continued to embed improvements in governance, culture and
accountability.

The completion of the CORE transition and response from APRA is recognition of the
progress we’ve made.

While we are a simpler and stronger bank than five years ago, the lessons of the past
must stay front of mind and we must remain resolute in ensuring past mistakes are not
repeated.

Strong risk management is not a destination, it’s a discipline. We are focused on making
it our competitive advantage and our differentiator.

5

Transformation

The cornerstone of our transformation agenda is UNITE, which addresses legacy issues
and complexity.

We’ve finalised the program’s scope, have a dedicated team and grouped initiatives into
10 work packages as we make progress towards our FY29 targets.

UNITE is starting to deliver improvements that make banking simpler and more
connected for customers.

Eight initiatives are complete, 51 are underway and the majority are on track. Where
challenges arise, we act quickly to get back on course.

We’ll continue to provide regular updates.

Alongside UNITE, we are implementing AI tools and AI agentic programs across the
business. These are not standalone tech initiatives but are strategic enablers led by our
businesses.

Some examples of their uses include strengthening defences against fraud and scams
and supporting faster approvals for mortgages and business loans.

When used well, it helps us serve customers better, make smarter decisions, deliver
consistently and unlock productivity.

Currently more than 15,000 of our people are using AI to support their work as we go
after our goal of “AI for everyone”.

The key is making sure we find proven tangible use cases and that we use AI tools
responsibly.

Looking ahead, AI will be critical to how we personalise experiences and drive efficiency
at scale. But AI technology alone isn’t enough.

Like any tool, AI is only as good as the people who use it, so we’re also investing in our
people and this includes the appointment of our Chief Data, Digital and AI Officer
reporting to me.

Sustainability

As one of Australia’s largest companies and employers, we play a vital role in
supporting economic prosperity.

A key challenge for the Australian economy is productivity. Without improvement, we
cannot lift living standards or remain competitive globally.

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It’s encouraging to see productivity at the centre of the national debate.

Addressing this challenge requires a coordinated response, and we’re contributing to
this in a number of ways.

One way in which we do this, is through our sustainability strategy. The Chairman
addressed our first focus area: climate change.

We are supporting our customers in the transition. The transition represents a
significant investment opportunity for Australia.

The prosperity of regional communities is another critical area we’re supporting in our
sustainability strategy. It drives 30% of GDP and is home to one third of our population.

To maximise economic output from the regions, they need to have access to the
banking services they need to thrive.

Our commitment to regional Australia is demonstrated by our expanded presence and
commitments including:

• the extension of our regional branch closure moratorium through to 2030;
• a new pilot for community banking hubs in NSW towns Dungog, Manilla and
Bulahdelah, with the view to expanding this nationally next year; and
• A new service centre in Moree, with two more opening next year in Leongatha
in Victoria and Smithton in Tasmania.

Through engagement with our agri customers and industry stakeholders, we have
listened to feedback on our no-deforestation policy which was set back in 2023.

Customer feedback has been clear: they need more help in navigating existing
regulations and demands, rather than dealing with additional bank requirements.

In response, we have removed the no-deforestation commitment and will focus on
providing practical support to help customers manage their risks and contribute to
industry-led solutions.

We continue to expect all our customers to comply with vegetation laws and remain
committed to our financed emissions targets for this sector.

Our final sustainability focus area is housing affordability – the root cause of this
problem is supply.

What will make a difference is increasing the supply of quality housing at a more
affordable price point.

7

We are committed to playing our part in a coordinated approach to help more
Australians achieve home ownership.

Outlook

Generally, the Australian economy is in a good position and we’re optimistic about the
outlook.

The rate relief over the past year has been welcomed by many customers and we’re
starting to see this flow through to spending and consumer confidence, though this is
finely balanced as we head into 2026.

Our stable political and regulatory environment continues to be a differentiator,
providing confidence in the nation’s resilience and growth potential.

However we must continue to challenge for effective, reliable and transparent
regulation.

I think it is appropriate to acknowledge the commendable stewardship of monetary
policy by the Reserve Bank as an important contributor.

While risks persist, including lingering inflation and geopolitical uncertainty, there are
more opportunities than threats.

For Westpac, I am pleased with our progress and energised by the opportunities ahead.

I’m grateful to our shareholders, customers and employees for their continued support
as we shape Westpac’s future.

With the right team, the right plan and disciplined execution, we will continue to build a
stronger, more sustainable company – one that delivers for customers and creates long-
term value for shareholders.

Thank you.