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Westpac has recruited one of the key architects of Macquarie Bank’s digital mortgage revolution, as it ramps up efforts to strengthen its consumer banking technology and reclaim ground lost to more agile rivals.
Luis Uguina, who spent 11 years at Macquarie and was instrumental in developing its highly successful digital mortgage platform, will join Westpac in January as general manager of digital, data and AI for consumer banking.
His appointment marks the first major senior hire under retail banking head Carolyn McCann, who took on the role in August. Uguina will report jointly to McCann and Andrew McMullan, Westpac’s recently appointed chief digital and AI officer, who arrived from Commonwealth Bank last month.
The hires underline chief executive Anthony Miller’s push to accelerate digital transformation and regain competitive momentum in a market where nimble competitors — particularly Macquarie — have outperformed through automation, broker-centric systems, and rapid turnaround times. The Australian Financial Review reported Miller has been “snagging senior bankers from CBA and Macquarie” as part of a strategic rebuild of Westpac’s retail and technology teams.
At Macquarie, Uguina helped redefine how mortgages could be originated and processed in a digital-first environment. The bank’s systems, built under his tenure as chief digital officer, became a benchmark for speed and broker usability.
Macquarie’s home-loan division has been expanding at a breakneck pace — its mortgage book grew 19 per cent in the year to March 2025, reaching $141.7 billion as we reported earlier in the year. Around 94 per cent of those loans were written through brokers, a statistic that highlights the effectiveness of its digital-first, intermediary-focused model.
Central to that growth has been a series of technology investments led during Uguina’s tenure: online ID verification through NextGenID, an advanced broker portal offering real-time tracking and documentation tools, and an AI-driven underwriting engine built in partnership with Google Cloud. These capabilities have given Macquarie approval turnaround times as short as 30 minutes — a stark contrast to legacy processes at larger institutions.
As MPA Magazine has reported, Macquarie’s success came “without relying on cashback incentives,” instead emphasising technology, transparency, and customer experience.
Westpac’s recruitment of Uguina signals an intent to close that performance gap. The bank has been criticised for lagging its peers in digital capability, and McCann’s appointment was seen as a move to reinvigorate the customer experience after a series of operational and compliance challenges.
For mortgage professionals, the move is being watched closely. Westpac’s ability to modernise its broker and retail lending systems — while maintaining risk oversight — will be pivotal in determining whether it can claw back share from Macquarie, CBA and ANZ, which have all expanded digital capacity in the past two years.
Uguina brings global experience to the task. Before joining Macquarie, he held senior technology roles at Spain’s BBVA, where he led innovation in mobile and remote channels. He also serves on the Google Cloud Financial Services Advisory Board and the Box Developer Platform Council, and is a non-executive board member at the Black Dog Institute.
Westpac insiders say the bank’s focus under McCann and McMullan will be on integrating data analytics, AI and customer personalisation into the mortgage journey — an evolution of the “digital-first” model that Uguina helped pioneer.
For brokers, the potential impact could be significant. Faster decisioning, greater transparency, and seamless digital verification are fast becoming competitive necessities. With Macquarie setting the pace, Westpac’s latest hire suggests the major banks are now moving decisively to catch up.
