KEY POINTS:
Cameron Clyne has made a career of guiding banks through difficult changes, but as Bank of New Zealand's new chief executive, he says its "Unbeatable" campaign will remain, but probably not as we know it.
Just three years into his career with National Australia Bank, and having just
turned 39, former banking consultant Clyne is five weeks into the top job at NAB's New Zealand operation.
Speaking from his Auckland office, Clyne sounds relaxed about holding down the big job here so quickly after joining NAB.
"Yes, it's a step up, no question," he says in an easy-going drawl.
"But the whole time I've been at NAB, I've been part of the executive committee."
The 1.98m, Penrith-born, former lock for Victoria's rugby side possesses a personable manner and little evident self-importance.
He clearly has a sharp technical mind and has already demonstrated a willingness to shake things up at the bank.
Already, he has pruned its senior management, replaced several key staff and had the office dividers in the bank's Auckland head office removed to provide the open space he prefers.
Under Clyne's predecessor, Peter Thodey, the bank was at the forefront of the so called "mortgage wars" which saw the banks tussle for market share by discounting interest rates.
With its Unbeatable campaign, BNZ gave itself leeway to cut rates more than some of its competitors by taking mortgage brokers and their commission out of the equation.
However, after more than two years of Unbeatable, BNZ's share of the mortgage market has remained fairly static.
"But we're not participating in 38 per cent of the market," Clyne says, referring to that portion handled by brokers.
"To be maintaining a static market share when you're only in 62 per cent of the market is not a bad outcome, and when you marry that with good asset quality, which we have done, that will serve us well over time."
Nevertheless when asked whether he intends to continue Unbeatable, Clyne's response is a lot less emphatic than what's been heard from the bank previously.
"As it stands today, yes.
"However strategies are by their nature dynamic.
"Is it a strategy forever? Maybe, maybe not."
It's probably safe to say Unbeatable is not flavour of the month with Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard, who has become concerned price competition between the banks has been fuelling house price inflation and may lead to deteriorating credit quality.
Clyne's first few weeks with the BNZ have seen him "develop a deeper understanding" of the New Zealand market and meet staff and customers. The keen ocean swimmer has also competed in Auckland's King of the Bays race.
Back on dry land, he has also met with Bollard to discuss the housing market, but laughing, insists the discussions "were just general ones".
"We went through what I would consider pretty routine discussions - how we see the economy, what are the issues, where we see interest rates going."
He also maintains the fixed-term mortgage-rate hikes by the major banks, which coincided with Bollard's discussions with their chief executives, were entirely because of movements on wholesale money markets.
Nevertheless, he understands the Reserve Bank's concerns about banks' housing loans.
"The loan-to-value and debt-servicing ratios - are those things prudent? That's a very legitimate concern to have."
Bollard has said he is looking at various measures to control the amount banks are lending to home buyers, but Clyne says that borrowing is not driven by the banks themselves.
"Housing is the most attractive asset class; there are some genuine structural incentives to invest there. How do you take heat out of the housing market? One way of course is to develop other asset classes that have some attractiveness to them."
Clyne is an internationally experienced banking consultant used to trouble-shooting roles. He was drafted into NAB's top echelon in 2004, when Australia's biggest bank was haemorrhaging market share following the foreign exchange trading scandal which caused chief executive Frank Cicutto to resign and the bank to issue two profit warnings.
He was appointed to BNZ's board a year and a half ago.
Does that mean he'd been in the frame for the job for some time?
"I don't know. Certainly it was an advantage in terms of understanding of the market and the organisation. I didn't hit it quite as cold."
However Clyne has long been familiar with New Zealand's banking industry.
While at university he worked in corporate finance for accounting firm Arthur Anderson, and when he finished his studies in 1988 he moved into the firm's consulting arm and was sent to Wellington where the National Bank was one of his main clients.
Two years later he joined Price Waterhouse, where he was based in Melbourne but was consulted by banks throughout Asia, finding time to play the odd international rugby match with Victoria against the likes of the All Blacks and the Springboks.
By the time he returned from a two-year stint in New York in the late nineties, Clyne was a PricewaterhouseCoopers partner. But after the firm's consulting business was bought out by IBM, he sought something different from consulting.
"I got to work all over the world and I probably consulted to the best part of 40 banks. You get to see a lot of different things, and as a consultant you also tend to get access at a reasonably senior level. You develop a interesting depth of experience. But like any consultant, you're always thinking what's it like on the other side?"
NAB's troubles provided him with the opportunity to find out.
Although BNZ is the smaller of the four major banks, Clyne says its a successful one. "People will draw their own conclusions about what defines success, but by and large it's a strong bank and generates good returns."
That is partly due to Unbeatable, which he says is more than just a cut-rate mortgage campaign. The word has an "aspirational" wider meaning for the bank.
"We want to be Unbeatable in everything we do."
Cameron Clyne
* BNZ chief executive.
* Age: 39.
* Born: Penrith, west of Sydney.
* School: St Dominic's, PenrithUniversity: Sydney - BA in economics and political science.
* Married to Melinda.
* Two children aged 5 and 2.
* Has worked for: Arthur Anderson/Anderson Consulting, Pricewaterhouse, IBM, National Australia Bank.
* Interests: Ocean swimming, rugby (Waratahs supporter), cricket.
