BoQ backs tech transformation under new leadership

Bank of Queensland will continue to back its technology transformation and migration to the cloud, despite parting ways with its CEO George Frazis.

The bank said in a financial filing [pdf] that Frazis’ departure is “effective today” and that recruitment of a replacement could take up to nine months.

Chairman Patrick Allaway will assume the role of executive chairman for the duration of the search.

Allaway said that Frazis had, among other things, achieved “strong progress in the bank’s technology transformation” in the just over three years he had led BoQ.

Technology transformation will remain a “key area of focus” for the bank, even under new leadership.

The strategy is to “continue to build a cloud-based digital and data-led scalable bank, improving the bank’s customer and employee experience, and moving off multiple complex legacy systems to reduce its reliance on manual processes,” BoQ said.

Only last month, Frazis said BoQ was "delivering to plan" its digital banking transformation, and that customers and staff were benefitting from the program of work.

Also this year, the bank unveiled plans to go all-in on public cloud and ultimately exit its data centres.

It has signed on to use Azure cloud services to drive automation and unlock further operating efficiencies.

The bank expects to finalise its data centre migration, and to have all customers using a new core banking system for digital deposits and payments by sometime next year.

It also has rolling technology transformation goals extending into 2024 and 2025.

The state of relations between Frazis and the board were exposed earlier this year.

Allaway said today that the board had "formed a view that different leadership is now required to ensure BoQ can continue to build a stronger and more resilient bank through future cycles".