Incoming Macquarie Bank director Wayne Byres
Former Australian Prudential Regulation Authority chair Wayne Byres will join the board of Macquarie Group subsidiary Macquarie Bank next year, as a non-executive director.
Byres was APRA chair from 2014 to October last year. Macquarie Group announced on Friday that, subject to approvals, Byres will take his position as a non-executive director of its banking subsidiary in February next year.
Byres will sit on the bank board as one of three bank-only non-executive directors, replacing Michael Coleman, who is to retire in mid-2024.
The handover from Coleman to Byers will end a sorry chapter in Macquarie’s corporate governance.
Over the past couple of years, Macquarie has had to address concerns raised by APRA about the governance of its banking subsidiary. It implemented a remediation plan covering governance, risk culture, remuneration and group structure.
Changes included establishing separate board audit, governance and compliance, risk and remuneration committees for the group and the bank.
Another change has been the appointment of three bank-only non-executive directors (BONDS) to the bank board. The first of these, former banker Ian Saines, joined the bank board in May last year.
Three months later, Michael Coleman, who had been on the Macquarie Group and Macquarie Bank boards for 10 years, retired from the group board and became the second BOND on the bank board.
This was a controversial move. After 10 years on the group and bank boards, it was hard to accept that Coleman was an independent director, let alone a bank-only non-executive director.
Coleman’s imminent retirement and his replacement by Byres, will allow Macquarie Group chair Glenn Stevens to avoid questions about why he has thumbed his nose at APRA’s concerns about the bank’s governance.
In July this year, Macquarie appointed former global chief operating officer of Standard Chartered Bank, David Whiteing, to the bank board as the third BOND.