Australia’s second-biggest bank, Westpac, is poised to overtake the Commonwealth Bank. Not in terms of assets, earnings or market capitalisation, but in having to pay the heftiest fine in Australian corporate history.

Westpac bank has announced they are increasing the interest rates on variable rate home loans from September 19. Here's how it affects you.

Australia's 'Big Four' banks have decided to remove the cash withdrawal fee for using their ATMs. This means you will no longer be charged $2 for using a CBA, Westpac, ANZ or NAB ATM with your card, regardless of who you bank with. Or to put it another way, the banks are rorting us slightly less than before.

Daniel Bergan is Westpac's lead on customer experience and has been at the forefront of the bank's recent technology transformation. Despite Westpac being around for 200 years, Bergan says the company has gone through many transformations. But the pace of change has accelerated recently. At the Verint Engage conference held in Melbourne on 6-7 September, he spoke about this transformation and how it impacts customer interactions.

Banks such as Westpac, NAB, ANZ, and Commonwealth have employed deliberate delaying tactics to arbitrarily make the process of cancelling a credit card more difficult. Australian banks are yet to meaningfully respond to an industry-led report that found there is a serious need for reform in how credit cards are handled, and as we move closer to a cashless society, it's becoming more and more important.

This week, Australia's four major banks were forced to explain why they are raking in billions of dollars in profit at the expense of consumers to a parliament hearing. They were also grilled about a string of banking scandals in recent years. Here's a summary of what the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Bank, NAB and Westpac had to say for themselves.

Companies have finished reporting results for the financial year so it’s time to take stock of how the different business sectors of Australia are fairing and the big picture factors that are at play. Today: Australia's "big four" banks: Westpac, ANZ, NAB and CBA.

Android Pay's debut in Australia has been in the works for months and if rumours are to be believed, the service could begin trials as early as this week. Somewhat surprisingly however, just one of the big four will be involved in the launch.

A large-scale malware hijacking threat has been discovered that's capable of taking over Android phones and gaining access to users' bank logins. Vulnerable banking apps include Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, St. George, National Australia Bank, Bankwest and ANZ. Here's what you need to know.

Westpac's half-yearly results outline how it has been spending money on IT over the last six months. Even though it is no longer stressing over Windows XP, there's still a lot of money going out the door.

Over the last year, Westpac has been trialling the use of video conferencing in its branches to connect customers to small business specialists. What lessons has it learned about when video conferencing can be helpful, and when it's the wrong choice?

Westpac is updating its mobile banking apps to support fingerprint sign-in on the Galaxy S5, Note 4, and iPhone 5S, 6 and 6 Plus. The bank reckons the Android options are the first banking apps in the world to work with fingerprint sign-on.

Westpac's annual results include a breakout of how much money it is spending on IT. While that number has risen in the last year, the bank appears to think that's worth it.

So this is a nifty extra on the soon-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy S5. If you have a Commonwealth Bank or Westpac account, you can use the phone's built-in NFC for fast Tap 'N Pay payments.

Making mobile banking apps actually useful is a difficult challenge for many banks. Westpac sub-brands St George, BankSA and Bank Of Melbourne have added two new options -- the ability to apply for credit cards via a mobile device and new property hunting features on its iOS app -- and I'm undecided how I feel about them.

Australia's major banks all agree that mobile phones and tablets will account for an ever-increasing share of customer activity. Given that, why do they continue to make such a dog's breakfast of actually developing decent apps?

Westpac's new iPad banking app isn't just a large-screen version of its existing iPhone app, adopting a different interface and focusing on making it easier to track balances and payments to individuals. That's a worthy goal, but the end result feels a little underdone.

There's a scam email doing the rounds right now which invites people to take part in a Westpac competition to share your best saving tips. While Westpac is running such a competition, the email has nothing to do with it: it's just another classic scam mail which links to a dodgy site entirely unconnected to Westpac.