the severity of Labor's defeat made her realise the party could not "develop an effective opposition" with her even as a backbencher. She resigned as both premier and state Labor leader that day, and handed her resignation to Wensley the same afternoon, to take effect from 30 March 2012. Bligh had intended that the timing of her resignation would allow a by-election to be held on 28 April 2012, the same day as local government elections. She was ultimately succeeded as state Labor leader by her Transport Minister, Annastacia Palaszczuk. Later reports suggested that Bligh would not be able to formally resign from Parliament until the writ of election for South Brisbane was returned, meaning that a by-election would be too late to coincide with the Brisbane City Council election. But on 2 April, she was declared the winner, and a writ was subsequently issued for the by-election. After politics In 2014, Bligh was appointed CEO of YWCA New South Wales., a not-for-profit organisation striving to end domestic violence and build a safer world for women and children. In 2017, she was made CEO of the Australian Banking Association. As CEO, Bligh led the industry's response to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, setting out to strengthen bank culture and rebuild trust. When the Royal Commission interim report was released, Bligh described it as a “day of shame” for the industry and vowed to do “whatever it takes” to regain trust and move the industry from a selling culture to a service culture. She oversaw the development of an updated Banking Code of Practice and worked with the industry to deliver significant reform. In 2020, Bligh led the banking sector's response to COVID-19. For the first time, Australian banks agreed to a unified response to assist customers experiencing hardship as a result of the pandemic. Banks agreed to pause loan repayments on almost one million mortgage and business loans for at least six months. The ABA also worked with regulators to ensure that deferred loans would not affect a customer's credit rating. Bligh described the loan deferrals as “a multi-billion dollar lifeline” for customers. Bligh attributed the banks’ response to COVID-19 to their strong “financial firepower” and their role in the wake of the Royal Commission. Personal On 8 June 2013, Bligh announced that she had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Bligh's memoir,