New chair steering $20-billion Newcastle merged bank

Samantha Martin-Williams has been appointed as the new NGM Group board head, making her the first woman to hold the position in the organisation's history.

Ms Martin-Williams, a Hunter Valley local and a respected business leader, brings a wealth of board experience to the role. In 2012, she became the first female director of Newcastle Permanent and transitioned to the NGM Group board following the 2023 merger.

The new bank - which is retaining both the Permanent and Greater brands - is just over a year old, but was already delivering on its promises to members.

"The merger promises were really about value to customers," Ms Martin-Williams said.

"In a year, we've been able to reduce fees and it mightn't seem much, but if you're a customer and that is a friction point, the reduction in fees for an everyday account is a really significant thing.

"We've seen our customer numbers increase, we've seen our customer deposits increase, we've seen our home loan portfolio increase as well across both brands."

Ms Martin-Williams will take the helm from Wayne Russell in November, who will retire at the group's annual general meeting.

Deputy chair Jeff Eather will also retire at the AGM and Rod Jackson has been appointed to replace him.

"In handing over to Sam and Rod, I could not be more confident in the organisation's future," Mr Russell said.

"Sam has a proven track record of advancing the agenda of regional business in Australia which, coupled with Rod's industry experience, will build on NGM Group's already-strong position in the industry.

"Having already demonstrated their capability and commitment, I know Sam and Rod are the right leaders to continue to drive NGM Group towards our goal of being Australia's leading customer-owned bank," he said.

Ms Martin-Williams said the financial giant had a desire to "diversify into new regions", through both a physical presence and a digital one.

"We will look at other locations both up and down the Eastern Seaboard, because it lends itself to that as we're already,"

"There will be a deepening of not only face-to-face services, but digital products into our current customer base.

"We're really focused on getting our technology and our digital proposition as strong as it can be for now and for the future."