P&N Group lands Great Southern Bank head of open banking

Police & Nurses Group (P&N Group) has appointed former Great Southern Bank head of open banking Chris Malcolm to lead its customer-focused data strategy.

Malcolm stepped into the role this month as the new general manager of data and open banking, reporting to P&N Group chief transformation and technology officer (CTTO) Warren Willis.

The newly-created role was developed as part of P&N Group’s transformation program, designed to deliver a ‘customer-centric bank of the future’, complete with a data, analytics, and open banking specialist team.

Willis said the team will enable P&N Group to deliver on its data strategy, aimed at improving the user experience.

Malcolm will “have carriage of our data strategy as well as spearheading the development of a centre of excellence for our data initiatives and data engineering,” said Willis.

He will also oversee the rollout of P&N Group ‘s planned open banking offerings “that will soon provide greater financial empowerment for our customers as a first step of our open banking journey”.

Willis said the bank “will initially offer customers a more holistic and enriching digital experience through our open banking Personal Financial Empowerment (PFE) platform”, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2022.

Willis added it “will complement our P&N Bank and bcu retail brands’ existing suite of digital banking tools.”

P&N and credit union bcu mergerd in 2019.

The group was granted both data holder and recipient status in mid-July this year, providing customers greater control over their financial data.

“By offering customer-centric technology that solves key financial pain points, such as money management and the home loan application process, not only will we make it easy to bank with us, we will also make it easy for our customers to get ahead,” Willis said.

Malcolm was appointed after an “extensive nationwide search” and “brings a significant depth of experience to this new role.”

“I believe [Malcolm's] strength lies in understanding new and complex domains, defining opportunities and galvanising teams to solve problems through a performance and cultural alignment lens.

Malcolm left Great Southern Bank in July after more than 12 years in total. 

During his time there, Malcolm held numerous roles, including the chief data officer position for five years and provided analytics as head of customer insights.