Budge eyes opportunities: since joining BankWest in 1997, group managing director Terry Budge...

TODAY, THE COMPANY'S EAST coast business holds 45 per cent of its total asset base and is considered to be a "significant profit earner for the bank".

According to Budge, BankWest only holds about 1 per cent of the non-western Australian market, but he said there were significant growth opportunities for the regional going forward.

He also said the expansion had given the regional a much more diversified business, so it was not just dependent on the west coast where it already had significant market share.

"Essentially the bank sees itself as bein