Ann: Westpac 2022 Full Year Financial Results Announcement, page-99

Where/how do you suggest they grow exactly?

They all variously tried to grow in Asia, US, UK, Wealth Management etc etc and with a few notable exceptions (nab's purchase of Bank of Michigan went well, the expansions into NZ are ok but that's our own backyard) they've blown up Capital every time.

CBA has made a few astute local purchases but generally speaking has stuck to their knitting and invested in their tech stack which has been a winning strategy.

Sometimes businesses are mature and the best strategy is not "growth" but just to do your core thing very, very well. This has been CBA's strategy and it's delivered for shareholders over time.

I have first hand experience with various executive groupings in Australia and when it comes to Australia's "modern disease" I can assure you it's not risk aversion but a combination of groupthink, entitlement and low level incompetence.

Let's take Westpac's most recent major blunder, the payment gateway that avoided SWIFT and AUSTRAC. Is that the sort of "risk" you want? When executive management can't effectively execute risk management for even the most basic core function of their core business (a payment gateway) how on earth do you expect they can manage higher risk strategies? I could say the same about ANZ's recent Capital Management and flirtation with MYOB (what on earth was that about?).

Too many privileged, talentless, grossly overpaid, private school boys playing "businessman" with other people's money.