KEY POINTS:
New Bank of New Zealand boss Cameron Clyne's first month in the job has been marked by top-tier departures and a pruning of senior management positions.
Gone are general manager of marketing Shona Bishop - credited with overhauling the bank's marketing strategies for the past two years - chief financial officer Mark Hosking, and head of process improvement and strategy Chris Black.
Bishop, who left last week, has been replaced by former general manager of personal banking Blair Vernon.
Ken Christie replaces Hosking as CFO. He will start mid-year. Head of planning and performance Peter MacGillivray is acting CFO in the interim.
Hosking, who had been commuting from Australia for the five years he was with the bank, is now CFO of the Australian Wheat Board.
Meanwhile, general manager of business Mike Skilling is now also in charge of private banking.
A source said the marketing department had been in a "state of flux for a year or so".
Another source said it seemed there were a lot of "renamings" of job titles for "what seems like effectively the same jobs".
A BNZ spokeswoman said the leadership team had been reduced from 13 to 10, "reflecting the fact that three divisions have been realigned into other business units". The new structure would enable the bank to be "more nimble" in meeting the challenges of the market.
Clyne, who started last month, joined BNZ after two years as executive general manager of group development with parent company National Australia Bank. He was also on the BNZ board for 18 months. Before that he was managing partner of Pricewater-houseCoopers financial services consulting practice across Asia-Pacific.
Sydney Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Brown said returns from all the New Zealand banking businesses were well below Australian ones and predicted single-digit growth for New Zealand banking businesses. The BNZ was a "middleish" performer in an incredibly competitive market.
"So perhaps it's time for a change."
John Buonaccorsi of stockbroker BBY said the BNZ was the NAB group's star performer. The bank was a comfortable second behind the ASB in profit growth and customer ratings.
"Over the past five years it's been the part of the group that has not been falling behind the others, and hasn't required huge investment to get it back on track."
Australian-born Clyne took over from longtime managing director Peter Thodey, who has crossed the Tasman to become group executive general manager for NAB.
Thodey has been credited with driving BNZ's aggressive home loan marketing strategy which has included dumping mortgage brokers and discounting interest rates.
Clyne is one of NAB's rising stars and is seen as a future chief executive.
