Exclusive: Experteq CEO outlines data and AI priorities

Experteq's new chief executive, Pat Murphy, says Australia's mutual banking sector faces mounting pressure to modernise its technology foundations as compliance demands rise, cyber threats intensify and customers expect far more sophisticated digital services.

Murphy, who formally stepped into the CEO role on 18 September 2025, brings three decades of experience across Australian and global systems integrators, as well as earlier roles in financial markets.

"I have been in the tech industry for almost 30 years. I spent about 15 years with an Australian systems integrator, about eight years with a global systems integrator, and prior to that, I worked in the financial market supporting a full-service stockbroker," said Pat Murphy, Chief Executive Officer, Experteq.

His return to financial services was deliberate.

"The financial sector presents heaps of opportunity. There are lots of challenges, and a lot of tech that starts in the financial sector moves into other industries," said Murphy.

He spent the past three years as Experteq's Chief Commercial Officer, a move he describes as a strategic return to customer-facing work. "I really went back into the CCO role to get closer to clients. As you move through senior leadership roles, you lose that day-to-day contact with customers," added Murphy.

Sector pressures

Murphy sees Australia's mutual banking landscape continuing to consolidate, driven by cost pressures and rising regulatory expectations.

"The sector has to evolve to provide the experiences new generations expect from a digital perspective," said Murphy. "We'll see ongoing consolidation, lower cost to serve their members, and a continually changing landscape for compliance."

Mutuals are increasingly constrained by the cost of cyber controls, reporting requirements and the need to upgrade legacy systems. "They're under cost pressure. What we provide is a shared service, so there's leverage in that. The areas they would like to spend money on are member services, but with compliance and ongoing cyber threats, that investment gets shifted," added Murphy.

Data remains a central challenge. "They hold a lot of data of the members or the community they serve. Regulation requires the data to be kept, and they would like to use that data to serve their members in different ways," said Murphy.

Practical use of AI

Murphy says interest in AI is strong, but many organisations are constrained by uncertainty about data quality and governance. "Clients want it. There's huge opportunity in fraud detection as a foundational service, and a lot of regulatory reporting can be done more efficiently," said Murphy. "But you can only do that if you understand the lineage of the data and can be confident in the data. That's the biggest challenge."

The pressure on households is also shaping demand. "People are looking at ways to invest the resources they have, if that's money, in better ways to get better returns and manage their expenses. The banks need to, and want to, play a role there. AI plays a big part in that," added Murphy.

Data governance

Experteq's Mutual Data Platform is designed to help smaller financial institutions manage sensitive information with greater oversight. "Mutual banks hold a lot of data, and they want to put that data in the hands of the right part of their business. They need better governance over the data they have," said Murphy.

He said the platform focuses on making data accessible while maintaining auditability. "It's about getting the data into a state where it is available back into the business, but the business has confidence in tracking that data, understanding who has accessed it and what they've done with it. The tools required to do that are expensive, and the platform is about how we provide that in a leveraged way," added Murphy.

Transparency is central to regulatory confidence. "It's so critical that the regulator may want to understand the lineage of that data and how it's being used and who's accessed it. That access can be tested that it was for ethical purposes, that data is not being sold," said Murphy.

Governance culture

Murphy says organisations need to treat compliance as more than a checklist. "Compliance is not just a tick box. Audits are not conducted to catch people out, but to identify areas for improvement," said Murphy. "In developing a risk culture, compliance becomes a natural part of that."

Audit processes, he adds, can be personally confronting. "People are being challenged on the daily work they're doing. From a cost perspective, the audit process can be very expensive," added Murphy.

Cyber resilience

Cybersecurity remains one of the most immediate threats to the sector. "It's a multi-level approach. It's about planning for the breaches or attempted breaches that are there every day. The cost of response is significantly growing," said Murphy.

"We provide a multi-layer defence for the clients that we serve, and we partner with other experts who have specialty skills. We also work closely with government cyber agencies who are trying to predict where threat actors are coming from," added Murphy.

Human behaviour remains a weak point. "We do a lot of work around the human element. If you've got an individual who doesn't change their banking passwords or pins, that's a component as well. If it's easy to guess, it doesn't matter what systems you put in place," said Murphy.

He urged users to act quickly if they receive a breach alert. "If your password is part of a breach, change your password across all your systems. Avoid using the same password and change it as regularly as you can," added Murphy.

Trust focus

Murphy said trust underpins both Experteq's offering and the expectations customers have of financial institutions.

"Customers expect and assume that the data they provide is going to be protected and used for the right purpose. The minute it's not, trust is broken," said Murphy.

"Trust is easily broken."