Westpac's success - and this is mirrored in a stock price that trades at a premium to rival banks - delivers clear evidence that the job a chief executive does can hardly be measured in short-term incentives (which represent a large chunk of pay structures). Likewise, the poor decisions of a chief executive invariably hamper the market's perceptions of the performance of the successor. Morgan's successor, the former St George boss Gail Kelly, has proven adept at making a second-tier bank a lot bigger, albeit in a bullish market environment. Whether St George will have displayed the same acumen in managing risk remains to be seen. Its lending has been aggressive. St George reports soon and even if there is evidence that the penalty for growth has been a blowout in problem loan exposures it should be able to hide most of the damage until the Westpac takeover is complete later this year.