Today, Blackley said Westpac has created a matrix of security services, each with a specified amount of prescribed labor -- a mechanism Backley says has taken the bank on a different journey by providing "much better traction".

Although rumors had been circulating for years and had reached Computerworld about the bank's in-house IT security problems since outsourcing to IBM, Westpac had remained tight-lipped, choosing not to respond to repeated enquiries from Computerworld in the time since the deal was signed.

It is the first time Westpac has provided a frank assessment of some of the challenges of outsourcing security which was delivered at the IT Security Summit in Sydney last week.

Backley also used his presentation to push the notion of customers adopting a single, trusted identity for banking services, saying it's a worthwhile concept that may take years to get final agreement.

"We will start to see sporadic, two-factor identification and sporadic, company-based smartcards moving towards a singular community of financial services; it takes time to get people into the space of co-opetition," Backley said.