FILE PHOTO: A man passes a logo displayed outside a Westpac Banking Corp. branch in Sydney, Australia, August 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo

By Scott Murdoch

SYDNEY, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Westpac non-executive director Peter Nash was reelected to the bank's board on Thursday, surviving a sizeable investor backlash over his ties to the troubled Australian Securities Exchange.

About 40% of investors voted against his reelection as a board director at the annual meeting of Australia's second-largest bank by market value, the results lodged with the stock exchange showed.

Nash needed at least 50% support, and the high protest vote was the second he faced in the past month.

About 28% of Mirvac Group investors voted against his reelection at the property developer's annual meeting on November 20.

At least two influential proxy advisors recommended investors vote against Nash rejoining the Westpac board because until exiting in September, he served as an ASX director for six years during a period of upheaval.

ASX, Australia's stock exchange operator, is facing increasing regulatory pressure over a string of failures in recent years, including a trading and settlement outage last year.

At Westpac's annual meeting in Sydney on Thursday, climate protesters gathered outside to protest the bank's lending to fossil fuel companies.

During the meeting, Westpac CEO Anthony Miller called for stronger action from social media companies such as Meta to curb online scams, saying banks could not tackle the growing threat to consumers on their own.

Miller said Westpac had spent more than A$500 million ($333.55 million) over the past five years on scam and fraud prevention, including new detection tools and customer-protection systems.

"But what's clear to me is that Westpac, and the other banks, can't solve the scams scourge alone," Miller said. "To help keep Australians safe, we need more action from other players in the ecosystem, including social media companies like Meta."

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Miller told the meeting the Australian economy was in a "good position" and previous rate cuts had led to increased consumer spending and confidence levels.

The Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday ruled out further policy easing after holding interest rates steady at 3.6%, warning the next move could be up if inflation pressures proved stubborn.

"While risks persist, including lingering inflation and geopolitical uncertainty, there are more opportunities than threats," Miller said.

($1=A$1.4990)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney; Additional reporting Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Chris Reese and Jamie Freed)