With a history spanning more than 130 years, Bankwest is a trusted brand in Australia’s financial services landscape. Its heritage is a source of great pride for Eleanor Bensley, Chief Digital Officer at Bankwest. She’s even prouder of the bank’s recent transformation into a digital-only institution.

Completed in 2024, this bold shift saw Bankwest close all physical branches and refocus on delivering relevant, uncomplicated digital banking experiences.

“Our customers don’t compare us to other banks anymore; they compare us to the best digital experiences they encounter every day,” says Bensley. “To meet those expectations, we had to rethink everything, from how we show up as a brand to how we deliver value through digital channels.”

Central to Bankwest’s rebrand is the concept of Chief Family Finance Officers (CFFOs) — the people managing household finances. Whether it’s budgeting for groceries, saving for a holiday or planning a home purchase, CFFOs need banking to be straightforward and supportive.

“When we talk about CFFOs, everyone can immediately identify who that is in their family,” says Jodene Murphy, General Manager of Customer Marketing and Communications at Bankwest. “We’re focusing less on demographics and more on understanding how families manage their money today.”

To support this vision for its target customers, Bankwest adopted Adobe Experience Manager Sites, Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target and Adobe Journey Optimizer. These tools enable the bank to create personalised, engaging experiences while exploring AI capabilities to make banking even simpler and smarter. The fresh approach is fuelling Bankwest’s ambitions to grow beyond its Western Australian roots and become the country’s favourite digital bank.

Providing useful and uncomplicated banking experiences.

In 2025, Bankwest launched a new mobile app and website using Adobe Experience Manager Sites. Its teams now benefit from modern workflows, scalability and personalisation capabilities that help them deliver faster, more consistent customer experiences.

The impact of this change on Bankwest’s target customers is significant. CFFOs can quickly access offerings to make their lives easier, such as spend tracking, payment options and enhanced security tools. Customers have also welcomed the availability of single-use or multi-use virtual cards for more secure online shopping, with more than 100,000 cards activated to date.

Adobe’s content management system (CMS) provides a unified foundation for more personalised and connected customer journeys across Bankwest’s mobile app and website. “We’ve shifted the website from being a library of FAQs to an engagement tool,” says Murphy. “Every touchpoint showcases the seamless, uncomplicated experience that defines Bankwest.”

Personalisation and insights fuel continuous improvement.

The Adobe environment empowers Bankwest’s marketers to understand what resonates with CFFOs and optimise campaigns and content quickly. Its Marketing teams use Adobe Analytics to evaluate the performance of specific features and make decisions about what changes will drive the most incremental value. Additionally, Bankwest marketers focus on continuous optimisation, using Adobe Target to test elements like button placements to improve user engagement.

“Analytics has made data available to more people across our teams,” says Bensley. “We’re making precise, informed decisions, whether it’s about the performance of an offer or the popularity of a virtual card colour—like Piglet Pink, which has been a surprising hit!”

Streamlined internal marketing operations.

Bankwest’s martech upgrade benefits both customers and internal teams. “With Adobe we’ve simplified our technology stack, consolidated two website instances into one and gained access to the latest features,” says Charles Street, Crew Lead for Everyday Experiences at Bankwest. “We’re delivering faster, more cohesive experiences for our customers across web and mobile, while enabling our teams to work more efficiently.”

Quality and consistency matter to Bankwest’s marketers, who use the templates and component workflows in the Adobe CMS to streamline content production. “Templates give us the freedom to move quickly while staying compliant and on-brand,” says Bensley.

Bankwest credits Adobe Professional Services and the Ultimate Success team as instrumental to the success of the bank’s digital transformation. From architectural guidance to legacy integration support, Adobe experts supported a smooth transition.

“The Adobe team has been with us every step of the way, even monitoring real-time analytics during the launch of the website and mobile app to ensure everything ran smoothly,” says Street.

From digital success to AI-powered innovation.

Bankwest’s transformation has already delivered promising results. Since the launch of the new website, traffic is up 350% as more customers take advantage of improved resources and speed.

Looking ahead, Bankwest’s Marketing team is focused on unlocking the full potential of Adobe applications, including generative AI features to further enhance operational efficiency and customer experiences. The team is also exploring agentic discovery to ensure its content remains easy to find in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Learn more about how Adobe Experience Manager Sites provides a unified foundation for more personalised and connected customer journeys.