)
ANZ Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) is fast-tracking integration of its recently acquired Suncorp Bank business as part of a series of measures the company plans to prioritise over the next five years to reduce operational complexity.
ANZ is planning to migrate all of Suncorp Bank’s customers to its platform by June 2027.
The Suncorp Bank integration will coincide with the bank bringing forward its digital banking service ANZ Plus to all of its eight million retail customers by September 2027, three years sooner than expected.
The measures are part of a series of immediate priorities for ANZ that CEO Nuno Matos says will unlock the bank’s potential to ”win the preference of customers, shareholders and the community”.
The strategy also includes plans announced last month to slash 3,500 jobs and another 1,000 outsourced contractor roles by September next year. The job cuts, when completed, will come a little over two years after ANZ boosted its employee base by 3,000 through the Suncorp Bank acquisition.
However, ANZ today revealed that it plans to “materially increase” by 50 per cent the number of bankers in its Business & Private Bank division, which will be supported by a new Commercial Bankers Academy to develop its own talent and to provide “better tools and systems to boost banker capability and productivity”.
“ANZ has a strong, diversified business with two scale retail markets, two market-leading positions in Institutional and New Zealand and a global footprint across 29 markets,” says Matos.
"Under our new strategy, customers are at the centre of everything we do - whether it's improving their experiences, offering them leading technologies and platforms, or keeping them safe.
"Our first focus is to get back to basics and deliver our immediate priorities, while our four strategic pillars will then accelerate our revenue growth and see all four divisions perform to their full potential.
"In a competitive banking environment, this must include a focus on delivering differentiated and superior propositions, raising the standard of every digital and human interaction in our channels, and avoiding disintermediation, while materially improving productivity levels."
ANZ says the fast-tracked integration of Suncorp Bank will accelerate value creation for shareholders, provide benefits to customers and significantly reduce operational complexity.
“We will complete a safe and secure migration of Suncorp Bank customers to ANZ by June 2027,” says the bank.
“On migration, Suncorp Bank customers will be moved into our existing, stable and safe system stack and ANZ branded channels and products where they will immediately benefit from access to a wider range of products and ANZ's expanded nation-wide branch network.”
ANZ notes that it will meet all federal and Queensland Government commitments as part of the integration.
The $4.9 billion acquisition of Suncorp Bank from Suncorp Group (ASX: SUN) was settled in July last year, adding about 3,000 staff and 1.2 million customers to the ANZ stable.
“Our Institutional and New Zealand businesses have performed strongly, but we see significant opportunities in our Australia Retail and Commercial divisions to improve our customers' experiences and deliver growth,” says Matos.
"Our immediate priorities, combined with these areas of strategic focus, will drive opportunities across the bank, but particularly in these two key Australian divisions.
“Our Australia Retail division will be significantly simpler, with one team, one brand, one channel and one technology system, as we accelerate both the delivery of ANZ Plus front-end and integrating Suncorp Bank.”
)
