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Westpac has appointed Damien MacRae as its first BaaS chief executive, overseeing the Australian lender’s efforts to deepen its relationship with non-bank partners looking to embed banking services.
MacRae, a Westpac veteran who recently returned after a stint away from the bank, will begin his new role in April, alongside his current position as MD of Pacific Bank and Specialist Finance.
The two-year old banking-as-a-service business uses a cloud-native banking platform built from the ground up in partnership with UK-based provider 10x and integrating more than 30 different technology services.
Says MacRae in a company blog: “Banking is increasingly becoming embedded in platforms and apps of non-bank businesses.
“Those non-bank businesses recognise that banking is an incredibly capital and regulatory intensive business, which is something they don’t wish to explore – but it’s core to Westpac and that’s what we’re leveraging through banking as a service.”
Block-owned BNPL giant Afterpay recently launched its spending and savings accounts on the platform, while digital lender SocietyOne is preparing to come onboard. MacRae says others are set to follow within months.
“We’re having conversations with a range of businesses about the platform’s capabilities and how it can help them – companies from a cross section of industries, with large customer bases, predominantly within that millennial demographic market,” MacRae says.
Meanwhile, in addition to transaction bank accounts, a digital mortgage proposition is set to be added later this year, along with other products and services.
Financial Services
