Category: ANZ

Source: ANZ statements

In particular, when using a milestone event such as a new year, a birthday, or a holiday, people are nearly 1.5 times more likely to commit to a new goal[1] because these moments feel more meaningful and impactful.

Unfortunately, most resolutions often fail to last past March. However, there are four proven and helpful strategies you can use to increase your chances of forming good financial habits.

1. Break down your goals into smaller goals – Celebrating smaller accomplishments more frequently increases your motivation and makes a goal feel more achievable.
2. Regularly monitor your progress towards your goal – Periodically checking in on your progress towards a goal almost doubles your chances of achieving your objectives.
3. Restrict your ability to deviate from your goal – Wherever possible, make acting on your goal effortless or automated.  For example, tools like Round Ups or scheduled transfer on pay day allow a ‘hands off’ approach to saving, putting money aside before it can be spent elsewhere.
4. Share your goals with friends, peers, or family – The positive influence of peers has shown to increase accountability and motivation to stay on track.

ANZ Head of Financial Wellbeing, Research and Design Mohamed Khalil said: “Setting goals is an important step in creating lifelong financial wellbeing habits.  Once formed, they require less conscious effort, making saving, paying down debt or managing your money an easier part of your day to day. Using a milestone event to set financial resolutions is a great way to get on track for 2024.”

“We’re constantly looking at new ways to help our customers to achieve their financial goals and have built in many of these global insights into ANZ Plus.  The new Round Ups tool, unlimited savings buckets, and predicted expenses are just a few tools customers can use in the app to make achieving their savings goals easier.”

ANZ Plus Round Ups help people to save small amounts each time they spend by rounding up eligible card purchases and transferring the extra amount to an ANZ Save account.

In 2023, ANZ and ANZ Plus customers set over half a million savings goals in the app, with the most popular being travel, followed by a house or car, and then rainy-day expenses.

Visit ANZ Financial Wellbeing Guides and Tools for more information.

Source: ANZ statements

Consumer confidence fell by 0.4 points last week, but the four-week moving average rose 2.0 points.

Among the mainland states, confidence rose in South Australia and Western Australia but fell in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

The four-week average of confidence moved up for all the mainland states.

‘Weekly inflation expectations’ slipped 0.2 percentage points to 5.0 per cent, while the four-week moving average dropped from 5.3 per cent to 5.1 per cent.

Three of the five subindices increased. ‘Current financial conditions’ increased 2.6 points while ‘future financial conditions’ rose 1.4 points.

‘Current economic conditions’ lifted 0.8 points. ‘Future economic conditions’ dropped 3.6 points after a jump of 4.9 points in the previous week.

The ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex fell 3.0 points after an increase of 8.7 points in the previous week.

Source: ANZ statements

ANZ Senior Economist, Catherine Birch said: “ANZ-Indeed Job Ads rose a marginal 0.1% m/m (seasonally adjusted) in December, after a cumulative drop of 8.9% between August and November. In original terms, there was a 10.0% m/m fall, reflecting the seasonal drop off in recruiting going into the holiday break.

“ABS job vacancies only declined 0.7% q/q in November, adding to the evidence that while the labour market is easing, there are no signs of a sharp deterioration approaching. Vacancies per unemployed person declined to 0.68, a two-year low, but this is still double the pre-COVID level. We see the unemployment rate lifting only modestly in 2024.”

Indeed Senior Economist, Callam Pickering, said: “In 2023, ANZ-Indeed Job Ads fell by 14.9%. Around 80% of this decline was driven by New South Wales and Victoria, with both states experiencing a much larger decline in Job Ads than other states and territories.

“The annual decline was relatively broad-based across occupations, with Job Ads down across 70% of occupational categories. The biggest subtractions came from food preparation & service, software development and personal care, which more than offset sizable gains in therapy and education Job Ads. Nevertheless, Job Ads in 80% of occupational categories are still above pre-pandemic levels.”

Download Report

Source: ANZ statements

It’s always important to remain vigilant to scammers, but the beginning of a new year presents the perfect opportunity to update and defend personal details by switching to tough-to-crack passphrases and activating two-factor authentication to thwart the efforts of opportunistic cybercriminals.

Phishing and recruitment scams are two common tactics used by scammers to target victims, particularly jobseekers in the early months of the year. They will send too-good-to-be-true job offers through email, texts, and social media, containing links and job listings that look legitimate. Through these links, scammers can gain access to personal information, passwords and account numbers.

ANZ Senior Manager, Fraud Analytics, Jess Bottega said: “We encourage everyone when looking for new jobs online to protect their personal information and to beware of any offer made through social media.”

“Young people and recent school leavers can be particularly vulnerable to recruitment scams, with the promise of making quick money the biggest lure.”

According to ScamWatch, Australians aged between 25 and 44 report the biggest losses to recruitment scams.

Ways to protect your personal information online:

 

• Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) – 2FA uses a second factor to double check your identity when logging into personal accounts such as banking, email or social media.
• Use passphrases over passwords – A passphrase is a sentence like string of words, making it longer and more complex than a traditional one-word password. Passphrases are easier for humans to remember, but harder for technology to crack.
• Turn on automatic updates – Regular updates are critical to maintaining the security of digital devices, and act as great ammunition against unauthorised access.

• Be social media savvy – Always keep your social media posts and privacy settings in check to guard your digital footprint. Seemingly benign details, like a workplace, photos with location details or a birthday can be a goldmine for scammers. With these details, cybercriminals can develop impersonation profiles and commit identity theft.

• Beware of unexpected messages – The best way to identify a scammer is to watch for unexpected or strange messages, particularly those demanding urgent action, containing links or requesting personal information.

• Keep email addresses private – Protect your email from spam and malicious emails by not sharing addresses online unless vital. As much as possible, have separate email accounts for personal and business use and set up accounts to filter and detect spam emails.

ANZ’s customer protection teams and systems operate 24/7. Customers who believe they may have been a victim of a scam should contact us immediately, on 13 33 50 or visit us at http://www.anz.com.au/security/report-fraud/ for more information.

For more information on the types of scams and how to protect yourself visit http://www.anz.com.au/security/types-of-scams.

 

About ANZ Scam Safe: To assist the community in remaining aware and alert to the constantly changing scams and fraud environment, ANZ has launched a new Scam Safe series.

Scam Safe will highlight the latest cyber security and fraud issues impacting the community and what ANZ is doing to help protect our customers.

Source: ANZ statements

Consumer confidence increased three points in the week to January 7th, hitting an 11-month high. The four-week moving average was up 2.1 points.

Among the mainland states, confidence rose in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland but fell in South Australia and Western Australia.

‘Weekly inflation expectations’ dropped 0.1 percentage point to 5.2 per cent, while the four-week moving average was unchanged at 5.3 per cent.

Four of the five subindices increased. ‘Current financial conditions’ fell 1.6 points while ‘future financial conditions’ rose 0.7 points.

‘Current economic conditions’ lifted 2.1 points to its highest level since late May 2022. ‘Future economic conditions’ increased 4.9 points to its highest level since late January 2023.

The ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex jumped 8.7 points to its highest level since the middle of January in 2023.

Source: ANZ statements

Minister for Social Services the Hon. Amanda Rishworth MP today announced the Saver Plus program will receive guaranteed funding from the Australian Government until 30 June 2025.

Established by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL) in partnership with ANZ and supported by The Smith Family and Berry Street, Saver Plus helps lower income Australians to gain financial skills, develop lifelong, life-changing savings habits, and receive matched savings for education costs for themselves, or their family.

This year the program celebrated its 20th year, moving to a new and innovative fully online model, ensuring all eligible people with an internet connection can access the program from the comfort of their homes and be empowered to take control of their finances on their own terms.

Participants set a goal, save for 10-months, attend MoneyMinded online financial education workshops and at the end of the program have their savings matched by ANZ, up to $500, which can be used to purchase education-related items such as laptops, uniforms or school excursions.

Today’s announcement from the Federal Government serves as a timely reminder for eligible families and individuals to enrol in Saver Plus before the start of the 2024 school year.

BSL Executive Director Travers McLeod thanked the Government for continuing to invest in this critical savings program.

“We’re incredibly proud of the positive difference Saver Plus has made over the past 20 years. It has become a lifelong resource for improved financial wellbeing and confidence for so many Australians and we thank Minister Rishworth and the Federal Government for continuing to support the program.”

“As cost of living weighs heavily on the minds of all Australians this time of year – especially those very daunting back-to-school costs – we’re thrilled Saver Plus will be able to provide much-needed financial relief and education for another 12 months and ideally well beyond.”

ANZ Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott said: “ANZ proudly founded and developed Saver Plus with BSL more than 20 years ago. Over the years it has continued to support our shared goal of helping Australians build their financial wellbeing and we were delighted to extend our partnership with the program.

“Saver Plus is a wonderful demonstration of the combined impact not-for-profit, Government and industry can have when working together on a shared goal. We look forward to continuing to help more Australians reach their savings goals and build key financial skills,” Mr Elliott said.

Funded by ANZ and the Department of Social Services, Saver Plus is a simple and effective means of supporting the Federal Government’s goals of improved financial literacy and greater financial security.

Since its inception in 2003, Saver Plus has positively impacted the lives of more than 58,000 Australians who have taken part. Through the program, participants have collectively saved over $29 million, with ANZ contributing over $24 million to assist with education-related expenses.

More information on the Saver Plus initiative, including how to apply, is available here.

Source: ANZ statements

I am joined by several of my Executive Committee colleagues, could they please stand up:

• Maile Carnegie, Group Executive Australia…
• Elisa Clements, Group Executive Talent and Culture…
• Kevin Corbally, Group Chief Risk Officer…
• Mark Whelan, Group Executive Institutional…
• Farhan Faruqui, Chief Financial Officer, seated to my right …
• And Clare Morgan, Group Executive Australia Commercial, who is our moderator today.

Before I begin, I would like to join the Chairman in acknowledging those who have been impacted by Tropical Cyclone Jasper in Far North Queensland.

We have a customer relief package in place and, while staying safe is everyone’s first priority, I encourage customers needing financial assistance to reach out.

I would like to thank all the emergency services members and volunteers who have helped hundreds of Queenslanders during this extremely difficult time.

We are also seeing challenges globally, and I echo the Chairman’s comments about conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere.

For people with family or friends in these regions, I can only imagine that witnessing the loss of life and suffering has been incredibly hard to bear.

It is distressing to see people being subject to prejudice. We cannot allow any form of racial or religious intolerance, including antisemitism, to take hold in our society.

At ANZ, our purpose is to help shape a world where people and communities thrive.

Here in Queensland, as the Chairman noted, we have a deep 170-year history and a strong presence supporting our customers, the economy and the community.

One such customer is the iconic, family-owned Story Bridge Hotel, where we held an outstanding event for our Board and local team.

Richard Deery, the co-owner, told me first-hand how the business steadily evolved over a century and a half to adapt to a changing market and reward the loyalty of its customers.

What started as a backpackers’ stay then a village pub is now a tourist destination with several bars and restaurants.

It’s a great reminder that we always have plenty to learn from small businesses. They are nimble, stay close to their customers and are willing and able to innovate and change with the times.

We also need to continually innovate to meet the changing preferences of our customers, and engage in a way that is most convenient for them – whether that is in a branch, over the phone, online or through a relationship manager.

One example is our new business cash hub concept for small businesses, which we piloted here in Queensland, in Maroochydore.

These are dedicated locations to help our business customers by making it faster and easier for them to carry out their banking needs, and we now have nine across the country.

Looking ahead, we have exciting plans to support more customers, as well as the economic growth of Queensland, which is one of the fastest growing states.

As part of our plan to acquire Suncorp Bank we will establish a major tech hub in Brisbane, creating 700 jobs in digital, cloud and data while establishing strong career pathways for Queenslanders.

We believe young Queenslanders should be able to access world-class jobs such as these, in their home state.

Our diversification

 

A year ago, I described our 2022 results as “one of the best set of results we have delivered” and 2023 is undoubtedly our best-ever.

Pleasingly, all four of our Divisions – Australia Retail, Commercial, Institutional and New Zealand – contributed to this strong outcome.

Relative to our peers, it’s clear that ANZ is running the most diversified and well-balanced set of businesses.

Each of them has a strong sense of purpose, a clear strategy built on unique strengths, and generates returns sustainably above cost of capital.

Our Commercial bank is deposit-rich, serving 650,000 hardworking, creative and entrepreneurial small businesses across Australia, and we are excited about the opportunities to grow this further.

Meanwhile Institutional is the most international of the Australian banks – serving the world’s very best companies – with returns increasingly driven by payments and currency processing.

Australian Retail is the smallest of our peers but a great business helping Australians save for, buy and own a home. We are rapidly transforming to a digital first, financial-wellbeing proposition by growing our newest business, ANZ Plus.

In New Zealand we have completed BS11, the single largest regulatory program in our history, ahead of our competitors and continue to be #1 at almost everything we do in New Zealand.

This has allowed us to invest in better outcomes for the almost one-in-two Kiwis we serve, while generating reliable returns to shareholders.

Today, I am confident this diversity is our strength. It allows us to face into more challenging environments such as the one that exists today.

I was reminded of this while recently visiting Vietnam to celebrate 30 years since ANZ became the first Western bank to set up local operations.

Today ANZ Vietnam is thriving, connecting trade flows throughout Asia, Australia and globally, generating opportunities for businesses – including those here in Queensland – and new sources of revenue for our shareholders.

Our diversified business helps Australian businesses, big and small, succeed on the world stage by making trade easier and attracting much needed investment from our network of multi-national companies.

This is of critical importance in Queensland, which is a key state for international trade.

It’s this global footprint that makes ANZ unique but also adds value by developing trading opportunities for customers and creating jobs for Australians, by supporting trade and investment flows in and out of our home markets.

Payments & Platforms

While our job connecting Australia and New Zealand with global opportunity hasn’t changed, the way we go about it has.

Our work and the Group’s revenue is increasingly driven by our payments and currency processing businesses, which are low-capital and high-return. These are areas where ANZ excels.

You might be surprised to hear that at ANZ we process around 60% of all the money flowing into Australia and New Zealand and provide services to more than 90% of the world’s globally systemic banks.

In fact, we facilitate an incredible $164 trillion in payments in, out, and around the markets in which we operate every year. Most of that is cross-border payments, leveraging the strength of our international network.

This is only possible after many years of targeted investment and it’s really setting us apart from our peers.

 

ANZ Plus

 

As the Chairman noted, we are also seeing the benefits of our investment in ANZ Plus.

Two years ago we had the courage to offer Australians a completely new way to bank – built on the very latest technology, with the very best security, while making banking as easy as can be.

Today, ANZ Plus is a fully-fledged business line within our Australian retail business.

The results in terms of customer and deposit acquisition have significantly exceeded our expectations with already around 550,000 Australians choosing ANZ Plus.

Importantly, ANZ Plus is operating at a marginal acquisition cost 40% lower than our classic business, with variable servicing costs 20% lower and falling further as we grow.

Just last month we reached a major milestone when we launched the ANZ Plus digital home loan. This dramatically reduces the time and cost it takes to assess, approve and settle a loan for customers.

Better for our customers and better for ANZ too.

Cyber-security & Scams

I know many shareholders here today will be concerned about how we are managing security and stability, and the increased risk associated with cyber-crime, technology outages and scams.

Many of these come across my desk and I can feel the heartbreak and very real impact these criminals are having on hardworking, every-day families.

I want to assure you that we work hard every day to protect our customers as much as possible from the criminal gangs that target them with scams and frauds, and that will remain a top priority.

Each month, we block up to 3 million malicious emails and 12 million attacks against our public facing web services.

Earlier this year we ran a pilot using artificial intelligence tools to identify and close suspected mule accounts linked to fraud, scams, money laundering and other financial crimes.

As a result, we have invested in this new mule detection technology and it is being utilised daily by our 450 customer protection officers. 

We also introduced biometrics to identify payment anomalies and removed about 1600 phishing or fraudulent websites impersonating ANZ and put in place measures to stop scammers impersonating ANZ in text messages.

We regularly deliver education campaigns, and I recently wrote to all customers in Australia to warn them of the dangers of scams and how to avoid them.

A number of customers have written back letting me know how valuable these tips can be.

You may have also seen the scams booth here today and the video we played earlier.

But we recognise there is always more to do and we will continue to invest in keeping our customers as safe as possible.

Employee Engagement

 

The strong financial and strategic results of 2023 are not possible without the right people and culture.

We’ve worked hard to develop teams with the right behaviours and skills needed to continue our transformation.

We actively invest in employee engagement, and with our most recent score of 87%, we are best-in-class, for any industry, anywhere in the world.

This may not sit on our balance sheet, but it is a real asset and part of the reason we secured over 90% support for our recent enterprise bargaining agreement.

We were also named best finance graduate program in Australia for two years running, allowing us to attract the best talent in the country.

We have a proven leadership team with breadth and depth of experience, capable of managing through challenging times and making the tough calls.

I am confident we have the right people in place for continued success.

Economic outlook

Looking ahead, our job is to ensure your bank has the strength and agility to manage any external environment.

The economies in Australia and New Zealand remain remarkably robust with unemployment holding at low levels and wage growth solid.

But the outlook is certainly more challenging, with interest rates and inflation expected to remain high, geopolitical risks rising and capital flows changing faster than we have seen in some time.

Our economists expect slower economic growth in both Australia and New Zealand in 2024 and only modest movements in interest rates and inflation.

On the bright side, our home markets will be supported by resilient household balance sheets, strong housing markets, government activity and solid business investment intentions.

Even so, pockets of weakness are already emerging, and we know this can disproportionately impact those with less secure employment, on lower incomes or renters, many of whom are younger.

Our savings tools in ANZ Plus and our Saver Plus program, as well as our support for build-to-rent and other entry level housing programs, are helping – but more needs to be done.

Thankfully, for those with existing loans, even first-home buyers, the number of customers experiencing financial difficulty remains modest by historic standards.

That is not to diminish the stress felt by those increasingly on the edge. For each customer who is struggling, these times will be highly distressing.

And we know things can change quickly.

That’s why over the past 18 months, we have proactively contacted more than 20,000 home loan customers each month to check in and ensure the ongoing suitability of their loan arrangements.

These efforts are making a difference, with over 70 per cent of customers who contact us in hardship back on track with their home loans within 12 months.

In the coming year we expect to be required to provide more support for our customers, and our strong results mean we stand ready and able to do so.

ANZ performance update

 

We’ve started the new Financial Year well.

Despite high levels of competition and concerns around a slowing of the economy, we are confident that our strong balance sheet and diversified business provides us with resilience and an ongoing ability to support our customers.

As we approach the end of the first quarter, Group revenue is in line with the second half of the 2023 Financial Year.

ANZ has demonstrated a proven ability over many years to manage our expenses well. While facing into ongoing inflationary pressures, we continue to execute on productivity initiatives to partially offset these headwinds.

Lending growth remains strong across our Australia Retail and Commercial franchises in particular.

Our investment in home loan processing capability and capacity and improved broker experience are providing ongoing benefits.

We want to grow our Australian Home Loan book profitably by continuing to offer reliable turnaround times, and in line with that we are competitive but not market leading on pricing.

Our Markets business in Institutional has had a good start, with revenues in the first quarter to date in line with the first half of 2023 average, and stronger than the second half of 2023.

The Institutional Division’s Payments and Cash Management business, a leader in the platform services space, continues to effectively leverage our multiyear investment in technology.

Our focus on high quality customer selection and prudent risk appetite means credit quality remains strong, with no material increase in credit costs in the quarter.

Wrap-up

Today we are seeing the benefits of being a stronger and simpler bank for shareholders and customers.

In more challenging times, delivery excellence, strategic consistency and the ability to flex resources is critical.

Our 2023 performance reflects all of those elements – be it strategy, capital, risk, productivity or our experienced team.

We have held a steady hand, and structurally we find ourselves in the right place, at the right time, off the back of years of investment and diligent execution.

Our priorities for the coming year build on that. We will:

• Continue to run the Group prudently, using our strength to support customers through challenging times and seek opportunity from our regional network,
• Further improve productivity, using tools like Generative AI to build further capacity for investment,
• Grow the number of customers using ANZ Plus and deepen their engagement,
• Continue to invest wisely in Commercial, Institutional and New Zealand,
• And finally, complete the acquisition of Suncorp Bank, delivering the benefits of our superior technology and customer propositions to their 1.2 million customers.

While the acquisition of Suncorp Bank would significantly increase the scale of our retail and commercial bank, helping us to compete even more effectively, if the transaction is blocked we remain confident in the execution of our Australian growth strategy.

We have a fortress balance sheet, the right portfolio, and a proven team, to ensure we can support our customers while delivering for our shareholders through challenging times.

Let me finish by thanking our people at ANZ for their hard work, and wishing you and your families a very happy festive season and a prosperous 2024.

 

Thank you very much

Source: ANZ statements

I pay my respects to elders past and present and extend that respect to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us today.

After returning post COVID to an in-person AGM last year, it’s wonderful to join you all here in person in Brisbane, a city where ANZ has a long and proud history.

Indeed, we have been serving the community here since 1851 when the Union Bank – a predecessor to the modern ANZ – opened in Queen Street…not far from where we are meeting today.

At ANZ, we are optimistic about Queensland – a state blessed with a great mix of industries, proximity to Asia and a young and fast-growing population. There is also tangible excitement about Brisbane’s status as a world city as it prepares to host the 2032 Olympic Games.

In fact, the Board got a great deal out of visiting customers and staff recently in Brisbane, Toowoomba and surrounding areas.

Customers like Lockyer Valley horticulture producer Qualipac, or the agricultural machinery seller RDO Equipment and the family-owned Homestyle Bakery in Toowoomba.

Meeting some of these customers reinforced to me the amazing dynamism and entrepreneurship that exists in Queensland – and it was a great reminder of why ANZ wants to be here.

Of course, not all customers are doing so well. As you would expect, we are here to support those customers and communities in good times and in bad – including those affected by the terrible floods this week in Far North Queensland.

A years’ worth of rain fell in some areas around Cairns and it’s times like this the true spirit of these communities shines through.

We’re especially grateful to our staff who worked hard to keep branches open and ensure customers had access to services.

The bank is providing support packages for affected customers as they recover – including loan payment relief as well as waiving fees for restructuring business loans and accessing term deposits early.

We have also contributed $100k to recovery efforts as part of the State Government’s fundraising efforts.

Before turning to the business of the meeting, I’d like to briefly note the horrific situations in Ukraine, the Middle East and other parts of the world affected by conflict. I know I speak for everyone here it has been harrowing to watch these tragic events unfold.

One of the secrets to Australia’s success is that our community continually strives to achieve peaceful social cohesion among our varied communities. As a country, we do not accept violent political, racial or religious division.

And so let me be clear, ANZ condemns prejudice, discrimination and illegal violence. Hate, antisemitism and intolerance towards any religion, race or minority group have no place in our country or at ANZ – and especially today at this meeting.

One of this bank’s greatest strengths is the cultural diversity of our people. It is at the heart of our purpose and that will never change.

With that, let me begin the formalities of the meeting with a review of 2023, including more detail on the bank’s financial performance.

Performance & Dividend

 

ANZ produced a very strong outcome for our shareholders in the past year with all four divisions contributing.

In fact, the performance of each of our businesses illustrates the value of being the most diversified of Australia’s major banks, while also reflecting the consistent strategy of your Board, Shayne and the management team.

Australia Retail saw continued home loan growth above industry levels, while Australia Commercial performed well in its first year as a stand-alone division. Our de-risked Institutional business significantly increased its return on equity and the New Zealand division retained its number one market position.

This produced a well-balanced result and a full-year cash profit of $7.4 billion, up 14 per cent on the prior year.

Let me briefly explain our approach to the final dividend for the 2023 financial year.

The Board determined a final dividend of 81 cents per share, franked at 65 per cent, compared to a fully franked dividend of 74 cents last year.

To offset the lower franking rate on the final dividend, the Board determined an additional one-off unfranked dividend of 13 cents.

Our ability to frank our dividend is influenced by the percentage of earnings generated in Australia and the tax paid on those earnings.

This partial franking largely reflects our geographic diversity and the particularly strong results of our New Zealand operations and our Institutional business outside of Australia.

Importantly, this final dividend contributed to more than $5.2 billion being distributed to you our shareholders for the full financial year.

Despite this strong performance, we continue to face headwinds as central banks grapple with high inflation and many customers struggle with cost-of-living increases.

While the inflationary pressures have moderated and some central banks have paused interest rate tightening, the recent rate increase by the Reserve Bank of Australia shows uncertainty remains.

Although RBA figures and our own data show households are still in reasonable shape, we know many of our customers are feeling the financial pressure and indeed some may find themselves in financial difficulty over the coming year.

This is where ANZ’s financial strength comes into play – we are well prepared with high levels of provisions, capital, liquidity and funding which allows us to help customers in need.

ANZ Plus

 

Let me turn now to progress against our strategy, beginning with an update on ANZ Plus.

ANZ recognised early that digital technology and customer expectations were fundamentally re-shaping financial services so we have made some major investments in new technology including the digital backbone in our Institutional business, our core banking platform in New Zealand and in Australia, ANZ Plus.

ANZ Plus is a modern retail banking platform focussed on the financial wellbeing of our customers underpinned by the latest cloud-based technology.

And customers have responded. In only 18 months since launching, ANZ Plus has attracted almost $11 billion in deposits and around 550,000 customers, with more than 40 per cent new to ANZ.

In fact, it’s the fastest growing, most contemporary major Australian bank offering for retail savers.

Importantly, the technology allows us to deliver these improved services to customers at a lower cost. Shayne will talk in more detail shortly about new features, including digital home loans.

You may have already seen some of our ANZ Plus team here in the foyer and they are ready to explain its features and answer any questions you may have.

Suncorp Bank

 

Another key strategic priority for the bank is completing our acquisition of Suncorp Bank, which was announced in July 2022. This will add significant scale to our retail and commercial businesses here in the fast-growing Queensland market.

As you may be aware, ANZ filed an application with the Australian Competition Tribunal for a review of the ACCC’s decision not to authorise the proposed acquisition. The Tribunal hearing took place earlier this month and we expect a decision in February 2024.

If we are successful at the Tribunal, the acquisition will then need the approval of the Federal Treasurer and the passage of legislation through the Queensland Parliament.

We continue preparations to bring Suncorp Bank customers and people into the ANZ Group, subject of course to these conditions being met and much appreciated the Queensland Government’s submission to the Tribunal in support of our acquisition.

ESG

 

Another important part of our strategy is approach to Environment, Social and Governance matters, or as many people call it, ESG.

In recent years it’s become clear many Australians expect companies, including banks, to consider the social, economic and environmental impacts of the decisions we make.

To steer through these complex issues, your Board draws heavily on ANZ’s purpose: to shape a world where people and communities thrive and also on our formalised ethical decision-making principles.

In fact, we set high standards in this area and produce a range of reports for a wide array of stakeholders, including our ESG Supplement and Climate-related Financial Disclosures.

One area of particular interest this year has been our support for reconciliation.

As a major Australian bank, we strongly believe ANZ does better when everyone in our community is stronger. And we firmly believe addressing disadvantage among First Nations peoples will help both Australia and your bank thrive.

We have a long track record in this area and we were the first Australian bank to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan in 2007.

So, after careful consideration from both the management team and the Board, we decided that providing financial support for constitutional recognition was consistent with both our purpose and our long-held support for reconciliation.

As a result, ANZ donated $2.5 million to Australians for Constitutional Indigenous Recognition and $250,000 to the Uluru Dialogues.

We understand not everyone will agree with our approach, however we firmly believe we remained true to ANZ’s long track record and our values in seeking to address the structural disadvantage for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Climate

 

Let me now turn to the bank’s actions on climate change.

I would like to begin by giving the Board’s perspective on the statement on climate change being put to today’s meeting by an organisation, on behalf of some shareholders.

Let me be clear, your Board considers the statement is not an accurate characterization of our actions on climate change and the environment.

Our ambition is to be the leading Australia and New Zealand bank in supporting customers to transition to net zero emissions by 2050.

We’ve been transparent that ANZ has a relatively large oil and gas exposures and that is certainly not something we shy away from. In fact, it makes our role in the energy transition all the more important.

We were the first Australian bank to formally engage with 100 of our largest emitting business customers on their transition plans and to disclose their progress – both since followed by our domestic and global peers.

We were also the first Australian bank to join the Net-Zero Banking Alliance and commit to transition our lending portfolio to net zero financed emissions by 2050. This in line with Paris goals.

Our emissions targets for lending to carbon-intensive industries – including power generation, large scale commercial real estate, oil & gas, aluminium, cement and steel – are publicly available.

This year we expanded these commitments to include 2030 pathways and targets for thermal coal and transport.

We have high expectations of our largest emitting business customers, especially in the energy sector. This means by the end of our bank year 2025, our energy customers’ transition plans will need to be Paris-aligned, public and specific.

We also expect their Scope 3 emissions to be disclosed along with reporting on their progress towards their reduction. These are the clearly stated expectations for ongoing financial support from ANZ.

We believe we can have the most positive impact by working with our customers to reduce their emissions. Our approach is to back their plans in seeking to provide more finance for less emissions, not to cut and run from these customers.

We firmly believe it is in our shareholders’ and the community’s best interests for the bank to support companies that we consider are genuinely committed to implementing their climate transition plans.

If we remove financial support from these companies, it may push them to lenders who have less stringent or no requirements on emissions reduction.

Resolutions

 

Let me close with some brief comments on the resolutions being put to today’s meeting. I’ve spoken to you today about our results and about progress with our strategy to transform ANZ.

Your Board believes management excelled this year, delivering record financial outcomes, improving dividends, making strong progress on our strategic initiatives and creating significant value for you, our shareholders.

Ilana Atlas, Chair of the Human Resources Committee, will talk specifically to our approach shortly. However, I believe we have struck a balance in compensating the management team for this strong performance.

 

In terms of Board membership, your Board continues its process of renewal to ensure we attract the skills and expertise needed for the fast-changing financial services industry.

Firstly, I’d like to acknowledge the enormous contributions of Ilana Atlas and John Macfarlane who will be retiring from the Board at the conclusion of this AGM.

Ilana has been an invaluable member of the board since 2014, most recently as Chair of the Human Resources Committee. John has also provided outstanding service during his nine years as a Non-Executive Director, particularly his role chairing the Risk Committee.

As a board we will miss their insight, experience, professionalism and wise counsel and we wish them well with their future endeavours.

I’m also pleased to formally welcome Holly Kramer, who joined the Board in August and is standing for election.

Holly will address the meeting shortly and she brings a strong focus on people, customers and culture, as well as extensive experience in retail and digital channels.

As an executive, Holly was CEO of retailer Best & Less and served in a range of senior customer-facing roles at Telstra, Ford and Pacific Brands.

She has served as a director on a range of major listed and unlisted boards in Australia and New Zealand, including AMP, Woolworths and Fonterra, and I believe she will serve shareholders well.

Conclusion

Finally, I would also like to acknowledge the more than 40,000 people who come to work at ANZ each day across 29 markets internationally – including roughly 1,200 here in Queensland.

They embody our purpose and culture and work tirelessly for our customers.

I’d also like to acknowledge our customers for again trusting us with their business. And we also thank you, our shareholders, for supporting us through another successful year. Your continued support is much appreciated by the Board.

And with that, I will now ask our Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott to address the meeting.

Source: ANZ statements

Mr Cincotta was one of the founders of Barrenjoey Capital Partners in 2019 and since 2022 has been a non-executive Director there, a role which he will step down from on 31 January 2024.

Previously, Mr Cincotta had a long and distinguished career at Deutsche Bank Australia and New Zealand from 1993 to 2019.  Senior roles he held there included Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Risk Officer.

Commenting on the appointment Mr O’Sullivan said: “John’s deep banking experience with a focus on strategy, risk and transformation will greatly benefit the Banking boards as the Bank continues to grow and evolve.”

Source: ANZ statements

The AGM will be webcast live on http://www.anz.com/shareholder/centre/calendar-events/annual-general-meeting/ and will be archived on the website shortly after the meeting concludes. Speeches will be lodged with the ASX.

Media attending the AGM can register via the Visitor’s registration desk (which opens at 8.00am AEST). Please contact us regarding arrangements for photographers and TV crews, which can attend for the first 10 minutes only of the AGM.

Address:

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

Plaza Link Level, Plaza Ballroom,

Glenelg Street, South Brisbane.

RSVP: Amanda Schultz, +61 401 532 325 or Amanda.Schultz@anz.com