Page 686 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
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The advertisement goes on to say:
You need a bank that makes every possible effort to minimise your currency risk. Westpac does. Now its highly professional currency traders can offer you more competitive pricing and servicing than ever before. This superior market intelligence and vast experience makes Westpac foreign exchange service number one in Australia.
Westpac's legal advice seems to suggest that this statement is a less than accurate description of Westpac's modus operandi at the time. The next advertisement, similar to the first, has a picture of the Chief Manager of Westpac's Foreign Exchange Department, Peter Chan, under the inch high caption:
At Westpac I live, or die, off the third and fourth decimal place.
Of this there can be little doubt, at least insofar as it applies to PPL. When it came to margins on foreign exchange dealings, we have already heard in this Assembly, Mr Speaker, about point taking and other matters; but I shall respect your ruling and not refer to that. Mr Chan said:
Believe me, if you want to get the edge in the fast world of forex you have to live on the edge 15 hours a day. That's the way it is in the foreign exchange dealing room at Westpac. We call it the 'ulcer department', a place where we live off the third and fourth decimal place to put you in first place. At Westpac we've put together what I believe is the best foreign exchange team of any bank in Australia.
He concludes with a telephone number to Westpac's foreign exchange room "where you're first in forex".
The Allens report was at variance with this, noting that State managers found it impossible to get any sensible answers out of the department. I cannot quote that because of my commitment to you, Mr Speaker. The last advertisement, however, is perhaps the most unfortunate. It shows the former General Manager, Corporate and International, Stuart Fowler, since promoted to Managing Director of Westpac, the man about whom I spoke a short while ago. Mr Fowler said:
A first rate reputation. It means the world to us.
A similar but little reported statement along the same lines was delivered in November 1988 by the outgoing director of Westpac, Sir Eric Neal, to a dinner of retired Westpac staff. He recounted the inscription of early Bank of New South Wales banknotes which states:
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