Westpac

Universal bank · Sydney, Australia

Westpac is Australia's oldest bank, founded in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, with A$1.13 trillion in assets and 35,236 employees in 2025. It runs the Westpac, St.George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA brands in Australia, a full-service bank in New Zealand and Pacific banking in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Corporate and institutional offices in London, New York, Germany and Asia serve large clients only. Small businesses get the Business One account with a permanent $0 monthly fee, $3 staff-assisted transactions and $0 fee international transfers in foreign currency. In May 2026 the Federal Court ordered Westpac to pay A$26 million for failing to answer hardship requests.

Legal name: Westpac Banking Corporation
Regulated by: APRA (Australia), ASIC (Australia), AUSTRAC (Australia), RBNZ and FMA (New Zealand, Westpac New Zealand)
Licence confirmed: yes, on a regulator's own list
Established: 1817
Website: www.westpac.com.au

Scores, 0 to 10

8.5Financial strength & stability

AA-/Aa2/AA- ratings with stable outlooks; recent regulatory action limited to a A$26m hardship penalty in May 2026. · source

7.5Asia-Pacific (SG, HK, AU, JP, KR)

Full bank in Australia and New Zealand, Pacific banking in Fiji and PNG, and corporate offices across Asia. · source

7.5Fast digital onboarding

Business One can be opened online in under five minutes by eligible sole traders and companies with an Australian address; partnerships and trusts must go to a branch. · source

7.0Lowest fees

Permanent $0 monthly fee, $0 electronic transactions and $3 staff-assisted transactions on Business One. · source

7.0Business cards (Visa, Mastercard)

BusinessChoice Rewards Platinum Mastercard costs AUD 150 a year, charges a 3% foreign transaction fee and allows up to 99 cards with individual credit limits. · source

6.0Cross-border payments, FX and multi-currency accounts

$0 international transfer fee when sending foreign currency online, but FX margins are not published and card FX costs 3 percent abroad. Corporate and institutional offices in London, New York, Germany, Asia and New Zealand, but no published cash pooling or API offer for mid-size firms. · source

6.0Trade, manufacturing & import-export

Institutional offices in Asia, London, New York and Germany support trade clients, but trade finance products are not detailed on the public business site. · source

5.5Online businesses: e-commerce and SaaS

Business One integrates with online banking and a Visa debit card, but foreign currency card payments cost 2.2 to 3 percent and no marketplace collection accounts are listed. Business Foreign Currency Account in 15 currencies with no monthly fee, AUD 12 inward and AUD 32 outward telegraphic transfers, but only for Australia-based businesses and with no API or Stripe integration. · source

5.0Off-ramp: crypto to fiat in a business account

The exchange CoinSpot says Westpac customers can withdraw funds from exchanges back into their Westpac accounts without restriction, but this is third-party retail evidence and Westpac publishes no source-of-funds process for business crypto proceeds. · source

4.0Europe (EU, EEA, Switzerland)

Westpac Europe GmbH in Germany serves corporate and institutional clients only. · source

4.0United Kingdom

Westpac London supports corporate and institutional clients only, no UK business accounts. · source

4.0United States

Westpac New York supports corporate and institutional clients only. · source

4.0Startups & VC-backed companies

Startups are treated as ordinary small businesses; online opening needs an Australian address and 18 plus directors. · source

4.0Foreign-owned & non-resident companies

Online opening is limited to sole traders and sole directors; new customers with two or more signatories must complete ID and document checks in branch. · source

4.0On-ramp: buy crypto with fiat

Westpac lists cryptocurrency blocks on payments to certain digital currency exchanges among its scam controls in August 2025, has blocked Binance since May 2023 without naming other exchanges, and 2026 guides report holds and review calls on first-time or large exchange payments; there is no published business policy. · source

3.5Best interest on business balances

Business Cash Reserve is a variable-rate account but Westpac publishes the rate only inside online banking; no yield is shown publicly. · source

3.5Fintech companies that need a partner bank

No safeguarding or sponsor-banking programme for payment firms is published; scam controls block payments to selected exchanges. · source

3.5High-risk verticals (iGaming, cannabis, adult, forex)

No prohibited-industries list for business accounts is published on the business account pages; scored conservatively. · source

2.0Crypto-friendly bank

Westpac blocks payments to certain digital currency exchanges and listed those blocks among its current scam prevention measures on 29 August 2025. It publishes no policy for banking crypto businesses and names no affected exchange. · source

1.5Stablecoins (USDC, USDT and others)

Westpac's Project Acacia proof of concept, reported in June 2026, used NPP PayTo to settle tokenised term deposits rather than stablecoins, and the bank offers no stablecoin holding, payouts or conversion to clients. · source

1.0Customer satisfaction

Trustpilot 1.3 out of 5 from 448 reviews with 86 percent one-star ratings. · source

1.0Crypto wallet and custody for a business

Westpac offers no crypto custody or wallet to personal, business or institutional clients; its digital asset work is limited to research such as Project Acacia, checked September 2026. · source

1.0Accept crypto payments

Westpac's merchant services page covers EFTPOS terminals, payment apps and online card and bank payments, with no crypto or stablecoin acceptance, checked September 2026. · source

1.0Bitcoin

Westpac sells no bitcoin, custody or bitcoin transfers to business clients; its public crypto material concerns payment blocks and scam warnings, checked September 2026. · source

1.0Ethereum

Westpac sells no ether, custody or staking to business clients, checked September 2026. · source

Sources

Built on public information and the BankStore team's own aggregated experience; no confidential client or partner data. Bank Index and BankStore are not banks. This is information, not financial advice.