Westpac NZ doubles 1H profit, McLean to retire

Simon Power, Westpac NZ's head of institutional and business banking, will be acting CEO.

Mon, 03 May 2021

Westpac New Zealand's chief executive David McLean has announced his retirement on the same day his bank reported first-half net profit more than doubled.McLean said the result was driven by better-than-expected economic conditions – though the covid-19 pandemic is far from over – and by a sharp reversal in charges for bad debts.Westpac's statutory net profit for the six months ended March rose to $523 million from $294m in the same six months a year earlier. Rather than booking any charges for bad debts against profit,...

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