A Muslim BANKER is about to become Australia's Top Postal Chief.

A BANKER is about to become the nation's top postie.

After running banks from Wall Street to Australia and most recently the Middle East, Ahmed Fahour has set his sights on the stamps and parcels business.

But that does not mean the new boss of Australia Post is about to apply for a banking licence when he takes charge in new boss of Australia Post .

A move to take on the big four banks was not on his priority list, Mr Fahour told the Herald.

"It takes a banker to know the risks of entering into the lending business and even very sophisticated banks that have been in the business for hundreds of years still lose money", he said.

One his first tasks will be to revive attempts to increase the price of stamps by 5 cents to 60 cents to restore profits in the loss-making letter delivery business. Australia Post's request was recently rejected by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

''I think you can expect there will be some discussions in 2010 on that,'' Mr Fahour said.
Mr Fahour, the son of Lebanese immigrants, rose to the role of one the nation's most powerful executives. After a stint on Wall Street with the US bank Citigroup, in 2004 National Australia Bank hired him to rebuild the bank's Australian business.

That move attracted immediate controversy, given that his sign-on package was worth up to $34 million over four years.

The pay scales at government-owned Australia Post are more modest than in banking. His package is expected to be in line with that of the outgoing boss, Graeme John, who took home $2.5 million last year.

Mr Fahour said it was not a stretch to go from running a retail bank that had hundreds of branches and thousands of ATMs and more than 25,000 staff to running Australia's postal delivery service.

''It's an iconic company with a strong brand. Like banking, it services a vast array of customers every day in locations all over Australia,'' he said.

But Mr Fahour comes to Australia Post when it is facing pressure on several fronts. The internet is eroding its core letter delivery business while profits for parcel delivery remain under pressure.

A one-time contender for the role of chief executive at NAB, Mr Fahour left the bank in February to become the interim head of the $4 billion government-backed Australian Business Investment Partnership.

But this did not get off the ground after the Senate rejected the so-called Ruddbank, aimed at stimulating commercial property lending.

Mr Fahour has just finished a short stint running investment bank Gulf Finance House, based in Bahrain. After only four months, he said the job he had set out to do was finished - well ahead of his initial 12-month target.

As Australia Post emerges from a period of strike action, the national secretary of the Finance Sector Union, Leon Carter, said during his time running NAB's Australian operation Mr Fahour had understood that unions had a legitimate role. ''He was accessible and open to ideas. It doesn't mean he agreed to things but at least he was prepared to sit down and listen''.

Mr Carter said that at NAB Mr Fahour had a strong record in workforce diversity, particularly supporting the promotion of women in the workplace.