The Australian bank, which provides wealth management among its offerings, said its chief operating officer is to retire, and announced other senior executive moves.

The chief operating officer of Australia-headquartered Westpac, John Arthur, is to retire from the lender, it announced while revealing that management structures will change, with the roles of group general counsel and chief compliance officer being elevated to the executive team.

Arthur had been at Westpac since 2008, joining as group executive, counsel and secretariat. He was made COO in September 2011. His most recent responsibilities included contact centres, procurement, property, banking operations, enterprise investments, compliance, legal and secretariat services.

As part of the changes, Rebecca Lim, group general counsel and chief compliance officer, joins the executive team, reporting to chief executive, Brian Hartzer.

Gary Thursby takes on the expanded role of group executive, strategy, transformation and business services.

“Bringing together these critical areas makes absolute sense. We have an ambitious agenda designed to make us one of the world’s great service companies and ensuring our strategy and transformation functions work closely together will help us to deliver on it," Hartzer said.

Separately, George Frazis, chief executive of the consumer bank, will take on responsibility for the group’s contact centres, Westpac announced.

The new roles take effect from 1 October.