why is westpac coming under pressure, page-45

The focus of wbc has switched from lending growth to growing the deposit book. It's all about becoming able to self fund their lending book.
As a former manager with them (until a few weeks ago), I know the drive was to win deposits away from the other banks by offering a higher ibd rate, therefore increasing the hln rate.
I do have strong doubts about the way they are doing business at present, and it will be interesting to see how they handle the STG relationship further down the line.
Personally, I was a huge fan of the previous CEO, David Morgan, and am not a fan of the blonde springbock.
As an overall group, WBC NZ is a large drain economically, and that is a concern moving forward. The lack of expansion, particularly through Asia (as ANZ are doing), is also a concern. Have they missed the boat on this?

I guess it's all cyclical though too. When the deposit book rises to at least 50% self funding, they hln rates will come back in line with the other majors.