Kiwibank raids rivals for top execs
Kiwibank has raided its rival Australian-owned banks to poach two new senior executives.
Mike Hendriksen has joined the state-owned bank as chief legal officer. He was previously assistant general counsel and chief compliance officer at Westpac New Zealand, for nearly seven years, after a job with Inland Revenue.
Hendriksen’s loss will be a blow to Westpac at a time when bank compliance is heavily under the spotlight.
All New Zealand banks are due to report back to the Financial Markets Authority and the Reserve Bank of NZ by March on their progress with meeting conduct and culture shortfalls highlighted by the regulators last year.
Steve Jurkovich, Kiwibank chief executive, who took over the top job last year after a move from ASB, said Hendriksen was a highly qualified barrister and solicitor.
“Mike will bring indepth knowledge of regulatory issues. He’s been deeply involved in the response to the findings of the Australian Royal Commission that sparked both the FMA and RBNZ’s review of banking conduct and culture.”
Jurkovich said Hendriksen would be instrumental in helping Kiwibank consider its own changes — both in response to the changing expectations of its stakeholders, and for our local regulators, who wanted to see evidence of great customer outcomes.
Elliot Smith will also join Kiwibank next week as its chief strategy and innovation officer. Smith was previously general manager of strategy and business transformation at the ASB. Jurkovich said the industry was facing disruption and Smith had an excellent understanding of how to make the most of those opportunities.
“Both Elliot and Mike bring a wide range of skills and experience that make them ideal for Kiwibank’s next phase of growth, which will see us have much bigger impact on the [NZ] banking markets.”
Both men will be based Kiwibank’s Auckland office. in