Ms McCann’s appointment is an internal one, as she is currently Group Executive, Customer & Corporate Services, and will take on the leadership mantle of the Consumer division from 12 May 2025.

Westpac CEO Anthony Miller said this was a wise appointment, given Ms McCann’s achievements thus far.

“Carolyn is an outstanding executive who has overhauled the operations of thebank in her current role,” he said.

“Under Carolyn’s leadership, our broker time to decision has more than halved, scam losses have been reduced by 40% and our customer complaints process has been dramatically simplified.

“Carolyn is a customer-focused leader who empowers her people to act. She will bring this focus to the Consumer division while we continue the search for a permanent chief executive.”

While Ms McCann is acting in this role, Carolyn Hoy – who is current General Manager, Property, Procurement and Resilience – will take on an acting role as Group Executive, Customer & Corporate Services.

This augments Ms Hoy’s 20-year experience with Westpac, in roles across Legal, Compliance and Risk.

Westpac shares have been trading at $32.30.

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There was positive news: The bank registered an increase of 2% in its net interest income for the year (to $18.75 billion in FY24, compared to $18.32 billion in FY23), and provided a final dividend of 76 cents fully franked – this was up 6% from the previous year, and means a total of $1.51 for the year.

CEO Peter King said he had been pleased with several developments at Westpac in the last year.

“Our disciplined performance in FY24 has set Westpac up for growth and success,” he said.

“We’ve significantly improved our customer service, grown in key segments and delivered another financial result built on a solid balance sheet and capital position.

“We’ve continued to manage margins well in a competitive environment while growing in line with system in loans and deposits.

“The Consumer division built momentum in the second half and performance in Business has been a standout.

“Westpac’s capital position is one of the strongest I’ve seen, allowing us to further increase the share buyback program by $1 billion. In addition, fully franked ordinary dividends increased by 6% this year with a final dividend of 76 cents per share.”

Westpac shares rose after the report, and at 12:51 AEDT they were trading at $32.23 – a rise of 0.4% since the market opened.

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Mr Miller is currently Chief Executive of Westpac’s Business & Wealth division, and his prior experience in executive roles included working at Deutsche Bank as CEO of the Australia/New Zealand division and Co-Head of Investment Bank, APAC.

He was also a Partner at Goldman Sachs, having spent 16 years working there.

Westpac Chair Steven Gregg said Miller’s extensive experience in the sector would position him as a strong leader in this role.

“Anthony is an exceptional leader. He’s an individual of integrity and he’s ready to leadAustralia’s oldest company,” he said.

“He has deep expertise in financial services and global banking and has built a considerable track record of delivery over 25 years.

“Anthony is ambitious for the future of Westpac and its customers. Since joining Westpacin 2020, he’s put the Institutional Bank on a path to reclaiming its leadership position.

“He’s spent the past year leading Business & Wealth, restoring growth and focusing oncustomers.”

Gregg also acknowledged the efforts and initiative of Peter King in the role.

“Peter’s time as CEO will forever be defined by his courage and commitment to Westpac.He leaves a significant legacy and we owe him a great debt of gratitude,” he said.

Westpac shares moved down on the news, and by 12:15 AEST, they were trading at $31.67 – a fall of 1.34% since the market opened.

Heading into the afternoon, the financial sector moved ahead of utilities as the best-performing sector, registering gains of 1.50% on the ASX.

The story of the day was Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA), which broke its all-time record in intraday trade, reaching a share price of $143.50 in the early afternoon, before readjusting slightly down from that number. CBA’s previous record was $143.38.

ANZ was also performing well: with a 1.44% rise in its share price, which was $31.70 at 13:24 AEST, while Westpac was up 1.39% to $32.02 and National Australia Bank (NAB) had risen 0.95% to $38.87.

The rally across Australia’s financial sector boosted the overall performance of the ASX200, which had gained nearly 0.60% to 8029.20 by 13:28 AEST.

The utilities sector had gained 1.41% at the same time, followed by the discretionary sector – which was up 1.29%, staples (up 0.96%) and real estate, which had listed 0.93%.

Energy was the worst-performing sector, being down 1.68%, while materials were down 0.65%, information technology was down 0.43% and telecommunications were down 0.13%.

Finally, the Nasdaq and S&P broke their six-day losing run, with the Nasdaq up 1.1% and the latter gaining 0.9%. The Dow Jones added 0.7%.

Nvidia jumped nearly 4.5%, but Tesla shed nearly 3.5% after it cut its Model 3 EV prices in both Germany and China. It had already cut prices in the US on contracting sales last quarter.

It’s an earnings week in the US, with the Magnificent Seven all due to report, as well as companies including Visa, Spotify and GE.

Back home and Tax Revenue figures will be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today and Consumer Price Index & Labour Force numbers will come out tomorrow.

In stocks to watch, Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) has revealed its first half Net Profit After Tax is being dealt a $164 million blow;  Sky Network Television (ASX:SKT) has renewed an expanded multi-year content deal with the BBC; and micro cap explorer, Galileo Mining (ASX:GAL) has begun a five-week, 3000-metre RC drilling program in its search for nickel and palladium at its Norseman Project.

One Australian dollar is just below US64.5 cents, gold is at US$2327.28, iron ore US$108.25 a barrel, Brent crude is above US$87 and natural gas is nudging US$1.80.

A reminder to those that have signed up, our webinar ‘Recharged Prospects: ‘Watts on the horizon for Copper and Lithium’ begins at noon eastern states time, 10am Perth time.