Saying goodbye to stronger, better ANZ

Today I attended my last ANZ Annual General Meeting of Shareholders as Chief Executive Officer and will be handing over the reins to Shayne Elliott at the end of the month.

 I joined ANZ in late 2007 with a vision to strengthen our position in Australia and in New Zealand, and to build a bank of global quality with an Asia-Pacfic focus. 

Our aim was to use ANZ’s international and business heritage, our home market advantage, and the opportunity of the Asian Century to build a ‘super regional’ bank.

And we have done that.

To achieve this, we have built a stronger, more customer-focussed and more profitable bank.

Our management depth, the capability and diversity of our people, and our culture and values are also stronger.

Importantly, we have created a better bank for our customers with a stronger brand, growing market share and more retail, commercial and institutional customers choosing to bank with us.

The result is that over the eight years our profits are up by more than 80% to more than $7 billion.

In 2007, Australia didn’t see itself as part of Asia.  Today we all understand our economic future is directly tied to Asia. 

Australia’s top three trading partners are in Asia…and Asia is our largest source of foreign investment underpinning growth in the resources sector, in agriculture, in education, in construction and in tourism. 

And Asia is only going to grow in importance.

At ANZ, we have turned our presence in Asia - which in 2007 was small and based on limited capabilities - into a real business contributing over 20% of bank revenue. 

Today we have a physical on the ground presence in 32 key markets around the world and we connect our Australian and New Zealand customers with opportunities in the fastest growing region in the world. 

I’m particularly pleased we are now ranked as one of the top four corporate banks in Asia. We have achieved that by being prepared to make significant investments in our home markets and in Asia.

Our offices and branches have been upgraded in almost every city and town in the 34 countries where we have a presence, including 53 new international locations - 11 in China alone.

Importantly, we have deepened our capability, particularly in Asia, which has allowed us to do more business, for more customers.

We have also transformed ANZ in other ways.

While business has always had to deal with change it has never had to deal with the incredible pace of change and the speed of disruption we see now.

Right now almost two million of our customers do their banking on their mobile phone. Using ANZ goMoney is like having your bank in your pocket. And day in, day out our customers are doing over 400,000 transactions on their mobile phone.

We have also created a bank that better responds to community expectations. Our financial literacy program is now in its 15th year, helping some of the most disadvantaged people in our communities understand and manage their money.

There have been tens of thousands of ANZ people that have worked hard to realise our super regional vision and to support our customers over the past eight years. I’m proud of what we have achieved and I thank them for their contribution.

I know I’m leaving ANZ in good hands and I know the best for ANZ is yet to come.

As for me, I will be taking a break over the summer and I’m looking forward to spending some time with family and friends here in Australia before deciding what I do next. I will be staying connected to ANZ as a non-executive advisor to the Board on Asia.

I also look forward to staying in touch with you all via LinkedIn.

Mike

Photo: Me with Shayne just prior to the AGM taken by Paul Edwards