Jacaranda Finance appoints Russell Cummings as Head of Collections

We're pleased to welcome Russell Cummings as Head of Collections at Jacaranda Finance, strengthening our leadership team as we continue to scale our operations.

Russell brings more than 25 years of experience across collections, financial services operations, banking and fintech. His career spans senior roles with Westpac Group, Macquarie Group, InDebted, Circular, Concentrix and Probe Group, where he has built, led and transformed high-volume collections and customer operations.

Most recently, Russell served as Head of Collections at Circular, where he built and led its collections function across Australia and Singapore, established its end-to-end collections strategy and introduced a data-led approach to collection performance.

Prior to that, he spent more than four years with fintech InDebted, leading collections strategy across multiple markets and developing a digital-first model incorporating behavioural segmentation, automated treatment pathways and multichannel customer engagement.

His earlier career included several senior roles within Westpac Group. As Senior Manager, Collections, Russell helped integrate the St.George and Westpac collections operations following the merger and rebuilt the combined inbound collections and financial hardship contact centre. He later led large-scale operational and transformation programs across the bank.

Building our collections capability

Jacaranda Finance Founder and CEO Daniel Wessels said the appointment reflects the increasingly important role collections will play as the business grows.

“Collections is one of the most important parts of the lending lifecycle. Done well, it protects portfolio performance, but just as importantly, it determines how we support customers when their circumstances change or they need help.”

“We set a very high bar for leadership appointments at Jacaranda. Russell brings significant collections experience, but what stood out during the recruitment process was the combination of commercial thinking, operational discipline, regulatory understanding and people leadership he brings.”

Russell has extensive experience designing collections strategies across early, mid and late-stage arrears, financial hardship and recoveries. He has also built offshore operating capabilities, developed quality assurance and training functions and held Responsible Manager responsibilities under Australian Credit Licences.

His experience also includes working with ASIC requirements, the National Consumer Credit Protection framework, hardship obligations and responsible lending.

A focus on customers, data and technology

For Russell, joining Jacaranda is an opportunity to help shape the next generation of our collections operation.

“I’m excited to have joined Jacaranda and to be part of the next chapter for the Collections team. My immediate focus is getting close to the operation, understanding the business and getting to know the people.”

“From there, the opportunity is to keep building a strong, disciplined collections function and use data and technology intelligently to improve how we work and the outcomes we deliver for customers. There is plenty to learn and plenty to build, and I’m excited about what we can achieve together.”

Investing in leadership ahead of growth

Russell’s appointment is also consistent with our approach to investing in leadership capability ahead of growth.
As Daniel explains:

“Technology can dramatically improve the way collections operates, but it doesn’t replace great leadership. Our objective is to build a collections function that can scale with the business, perform consistently through different credit cycles and continue delivering responsible outcomes for customers. Russell understands both sides of that equation.”

Russell commenced with Jacaranda Finance in September 2026.