Westpac has been forced to abandon a sales leaderboard used to rank home lenders in group chats, after staff said the practice left them humiliated and, in some cases, in tears. The system reportedly compared individual lenders' performance against targets in a shared, visible format, prompting complaints that it created an unfair and demoralising working environment.

Following the backlash, the bank has reportedly backed down on the leaderboard and the targets associated with it, with staff and their representatives describing the original approach as unreasonable. The episode adds to broader scrutiny of sales culture and performance-management practices within Australian banking.