Former Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer has joined Beforepay, one of the biggest players in Australia’s burgeoning buy now, pay later (BNPL) space.
It is Hartzer’s first major role back in the banking sector since he left the Big Four bank in the wake of the Royal Commission into money laundering.
The move comes in advance of moves to take Beforepay public, with an IPO expected in the near future.
Their business model is essentially the BNPL model in reverse: rather than customers buying products now and paying them off as they get paid from work, Beforepay advance customers parts of the salary to allow them to pay merchants in full.
It is vital for brokers to be aware of this space, as it has serious implications for the personal loan market, which has been a huge growth area for the broker channel in recent months.
They claim 100,000 members and a 10 to 15% rate of growth month to month.
Hartzer had been working with Sayers, a consultancy firm, on part-time basis, assisting in the investment management space. He spent four years at the top of Westpac before resigning in 2019 at the height of the money laundering scandal.
He has been brought back into the fold by Jamie Twiss, once chief strategy officer at Westpac, who is now CEO at Beforepay.
