BANK OF SYDNEY
The impact of these disconnected systems was felt throughout the organisation. Staff had been spending hours on manual processes while customers experienced delays as applications moved between systems. For a bank that prided itself on personal service, these technological barriers were undermining its core strengths.
Geoff, who describes himself as a“ serial CIO,” joined Bank of Sydney specifically to tackle this transformation challenge. His mandate was straightforward: modernise everything while preserving the relationshipfocused culture that defines the institution.
“ The challenge is there to do better for our customers, do better for our employees and support our shareholder,” he says.“ We need to implement a better technology environment that is more competitive.”
The urgency of this transformation reflects the broader competitive pressures facing all banks. The transformation is gaining momentum after careful planning and partner selection, driven by the reality of Australia’ s fast-moving financial services landscape.
“ It is a very competitive environment, the world moves on, it doesn’ t wait for us to catch up,” Geoff reveals.“ We’ re constrained in terms of how much we can invest and the time it takes to drive real change.”
His solution involves replacing decades of accumulated technology debt with an integrated, cloud-first platform. The
“ It is a very competitive environment; the world moves on so it doesn’ t wait for us to catch up”
GEOFF WENBORN, COO, BANK OF SYDNEY
approach is bold for an organisation with limited resources, but progress is already visible across multiple operational areas.
Cloud partners provide the foundation Core banking transformations have destroyed careers and bankrupted institutions. The complexity of replacing systems that handle every deposit, loan and transaction has earned these projects the nickname“ CEO or CIO killer”. Geoff understands these risks and has designed a gradual approach that avoids disrupting the bank’ s critical operations while building momentum through careful partner selection.
The bank has partnered with Infosys for its new core banking platform, moving to a cloud-based software-as-a-service model that represents a fundamental shift from previous approaches. This partnership addresses the bank’ s need for comprehensive coverage across all operational areas.
“ It was very important to deliver a technology platform that covers all the bank’ s needs in terms of meeting
82 October 2025