TSB seeks new CEO to support vision of being 'the easiest bank to deal with' who is 'culturally aligned' with its community values

TSB's board has tasked executive search firm Hobson Leavy with finding the bank a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Donna Cooper, TSB's CEO of five years, leaves on July 28.

"The ideal candidate will be a proven leader with a strong banking background. They will be very focused on continuing the transformation of the bank to support it’s vision of being 'the easiest bank to deal with.' The role is based in New Plymouth and the ideal candidate will be strongly culturally aligned to the community values that drive TSB Bank," Hobson Leavy says.

"TSB is owned by the Toi Foundation which allows TSB Bank to return much of its profits every year into the community. The Toi foundation has contributed more than $153 million into the Taranaki community in the last four years."

Released last week, TSB's annual results showed a 48% drop in March-year net profit after tax to $19.948 million as expenses and provisions surged.

The bank says that, as part of work to implement changes to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act, it reviewed processes around consumer credit products. This identified "some areas requiring attention." It is thus "working through the detail of remediating customers as required."

Of TSB's $7.1 billion total lending, 87.5% is residential mortgage lending. Whilst still headquartered in New Plymouth, the bank now has 44% of its lending exposure in Auckland compared to 32% in Taranaki.

Cooper moved to New Plymouth from Auckland to take the CEO's job in 2018. She had previously been chief executive of The Warehouse Financial Services Group, a director and general manager of Baycorp Holdings (NZ), and worked for American Express International in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and India.

TSB's Chairman Mark Darrow also chairs Motor Trade Finance and is the former CEO of PGG Wrightson Finance.

'Proposing change is never a decision that is made lightly'

In terms of the bank's "transformation," this is about "uplifting our digital service offering for customers and optimising our processes for our teams," Cooper says via a TSB spokeswoman.

"While we have key milestones in place, there isn’t an end date as we need to constantly evolve in response to customer needs and preferences," Cooper says.

Consultation is underway with staff. 

"As a leading New Zealand owned bank, we must continue to digitally transform our business to keep delivering easily accessible and intuitive products and services. These need to drive better customer outcomes and ensure we remain modern and competitive and achieve our goal to be the easiest bank to deal with. That is why we are streamlining and simplifying aspects of the bank and investing in the futureproofing of our business to be in a strong position long term," Cooper says.

Closing some branches appears to be on the agenda.

"Like all banks, TSB is also seeing branch usage rapidly decline as more customers choose to bank digitally. TSB has begun evolving its in-person service model to align with customer preferences, which include providing more specialised support in the moments that matter like getting a home loan and developing smarter technology for easy day-to-day banking. We’re committed to continuing to improve on this to better meet customer needs, which is why we are proposing some changes to our branch network," says Cooper. 

"Proposing change is never a decision that is made lightly, and we are committed to carrying out this process carefully, with respect and support for our people. As we are still working through what the changes will look like with our people, we are not in a position to provide further information until this process is complete. Our customers can be assured that we’ll proactively support them with their banking needs throughout any changes." 

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