New leaders to guide MyState into battle

MyState Bank (MyState) hosted its annual general meeting on Wednesday (20 October), where it reported its results for the September quarter and it declared that its chair, Miles Hampton, would resign from the bank in March next year.

Mr Hampton will depart soon after chief executive Melos Sulicich, who is leaving the bank after he initially resigning at the start of 2020 (but delaying his exit once COVID-19 hit).

BNK banking and wholesale CEO Brett Morgan will become the new chief in January, while MyState board director Vaughn Richtor will become chair from April.

Mr Richtor, who was previously CEO of ING Direct Australia and helped establish it as the country’s first digital bank, is expected to boost Tasmanian-headquartered MyState along on its aggressive growth trajectory, outlined in its 2025 strategy.

Mr Morgan similarly worked with ING for 15 years, in senior roles such as executive director, mortgages.

“At MyState Bank we have consistently grown our loan book well ahead of system, but if we are to remain competitive, we need much greater scale and we are targeting a sharp increase in the growth trajectory over the next four years,” Mr Hampton said in his AGM address.

During the September quarter, the bank’s home loan book had grown by 4.7 per cent from the previous quarter, up to $5.7 billion.

Mortgage applications had more than doubled (up by 115.5 per cent) on the previous corresponding period to a record $1.3 billion, while settlements also hit a high, up by 84.3 per cent to $678 million.

Mr Sulicich stated the growth has been driven by the 2025 strategy, which included expanding the bank’s distribution through brokers, implementing marketing across the eastern seaboard and building a digital platform that can scale up.

“These record home loan numbers are an outstanding result and clear indication that our 2025 strategy to create scale and accelerate growth is working,” Mr Sulicich said.

He also recounted MyState’s $55.5 million capital raise earlier this year and the addition of new executives.

In 2021, MyState has appointed a new general manager for banking, a new general manager for wealth management business Tasmanian Perpetual Trustees (TPT) Wealth, among other hires, such as five new business banking relationship managers in Tasmania.

Further, around 18,000 customers have joined the bank in the past 12 months.

“On top of our capital raising, which is a major plank in the execution of our strategy, this year we have added more business development managers – more than doubling their number so that we can reach more brokers and more customers and originate more mortgages,” Mr Sulicich said.

“We are advertising extensively in Tasmania and Melbourne to grow our brand and customer base.”

MyState has also focused on building its digital capabilities, as a way to penetrate mainland Australia. Increasing its artificial intelligence capacity will remain a focus for future investment, Mr Sulicich told shareholders.

However, the CEO warned dividends are expected to be lower in the 2022 financial year, as capital is deployed towards the bank’s growth.

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