ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott unveils management shake-up

New boss Shayne Elliott has sought to simplify ANZ ahead of what’s expected to be more challenging times.

A new structure that brings greater clarity, says new ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott.

New ANZ chief Shayne Elliott has firmed up his senior team and tweaked the bank’s reporting structure as he seeks to simplify the bank ahead of what’s expected to be a more challenging period for the industry.

After revealing on Friday that international and institutional banking boss Andrew Geczy would be departing ANZ (ANZ), Mr Elliott today split the job into two and installed chief of Australia, Mark Whelan, to run institutional banking and Farhan Faruqui as group executive for international, reporting to Mr Whelan.

“The new structure brings greater clarity to what we do best for our customers with a leadership team that reflects a diverse mix of experience and new talent from inside and outside ANZ,” Mr Elliott said.

Fred Ohlsso has been brought in from ANZ New Zealand to oversee the bank’s Australian retail and commercial banking operations, while NZ boss David Hisco and wealth chief Joyce Phillips remain in their roles.

Mr Hisco, however, won additional responsibility for the Pacific, excluding Papua New Guinea, and for ANZ’s retail business in Asia.

Mr Elliott has also created a new role of group executive, digital banking, which is yet to be filled.

The crucial chief financial officer role — Mr Elliott’s former job before winning the race to succeed Mike Smith — also remains vacant, but ANZ said the search is “well advanced and is expected to be finalised in the coming months”.

As part of the reshuffle, Gilles Planté, deputy CEO of institutional and international banking under Mr Geczy, will leave ANZ.

The changes are effective February 1.

“These changes simplify how we work internally and allow us to bring greater focus to what we do uniquely well for our customers,” Mr Elliott, who begun as CEO at the start of this month, said.

“The aim is to ensure we successfully compete in a world where connectivity and digital are more important to customers than ever before and where community expectations have never been higher.”

Mr Elliott also unveiled some medium-term priorities, including building a strong culture known for “ethics, values and fairness” and “delivering consistently strong financial results for investors balancing growth and return”.

Yet they didn’t include any firm targets.

While ANZ has already dumped its pledge to deliver a return on equity of 16 per cent, the bank has a range of targets still in the market, including 25-30 per cent of group earnings from Asia by next year and a cost-to-income ratio below 43 per cent by this year.

The changes come after sensational allegations this month from two former traders, including that senior managers condoned a “toxic” culture that spanned strip clubs and drug use.

Like his peers, Mr Elliott is also battling the more difficult environment from sluggish economic growth, rising regulatory capital requirements and technological change.

Morgan Stanley analysts this month forecast ANZ to cut its dividend in the second half of this year. Analyst Richard Wiles said ANZ shares had underperformed its rivals by about 40 per cent in the past five years, initially because of the ROE dilution from the group’s Asian expansion and then due to its perceived higher risk profile.

He said this would continue unless Mr Elliott tackles several challenges, such as taking a restructuring provision for reinvestment and technology change, potentially selling the Asian retail franchise and resolving the drag from its minority stakes in several Asian banks.