BoQ digitisation efforts linked to hundreds of job cuts

Bank of Queensland Group has directly linked plans to cut "up to 400 full-time equivalent roles" to its ongoing digital transformation program.

The bank said it has made sufficient progress on its “simplification and digitisation strategic pillars” to make the cuts. 

The actual number of staff impacted is unclear, as full-time equivalent or FTE is an expression of hours worked rather than employee numbers.

Some news reports suggest up to 600 employees may be impacted.

The cuts come as part of BoQ’s efforts to become a “lower-cost, agile, digitally focused" retail bank”.

BoQ has already shifted a quarter of its retail customers onto its digital banking platforms and has launched a new digital home loans platform. 

As a result of its digitisation, BoQ plans to convert 114 of its franchised branches into corporate branches under full ownership of the group [pdf]

“[The conversion] is a further step towards transitioning to a simple, low cost-to-serve digital retail bank," CEO Patrick Allaway said.

“Satisfaction with BoQ’s digital bank continues to increase, as more customers embrace the enhanced experience on the platform.”

In an announcement to the ASX, the bank noted that “significant progress” had been made in delivering its digital transformation, leaving it “well positioned... to progress on its simplification and optimisation pillars”.

BoQ’s digital roadmap is underpinned by its appointment of Microsoft as its preferred cloud provider, with plans to migrate infrastructure and applications to Azure by 2025.

The migration is intended to improve BoQ’s automation efforts and time-to-market. In the first half of the financial year 2024, the bank successfully automated 43 processes.

BoQ expects to automate 80 percent of key processes between FY23 and FY26. 

BoQ’s digitisation foray saw it acquire ME Bank in February 2021, which at the time marked its first digital-only bank.

The acquisition of ME Bank facilitated the launch of BoQ’s digital banking application.

A total of 260,000 customers are now using the platform, including the first batch of ME customers, alongside 25 percent of BoQ retail customers.

The full ME migration for deposit-only customers is expected to be completed during the current financial year.

For home loan applications, the bank has launched its BoQ Broker Portal, a digital brokerage that was first piloted through its Virgin Money brand last year.

Virgin Money stopped accepting home loan applications for new customers [pdf] through the brand's broker channel on September 1 2023. Now, BoQ will pause any further home loan applications through the broker channel from August 31 2024.

BoQ's latest financial results for the half-year ending February 29, 2024 saw the bank accrue $524 million in cash operating expenses, part of which stemmed from its investment in risk, compliance and technology.

The bank had previously signalled it had spent an additional $41 million in technology-related costs.