ANZ’s Michelle Jablko transitions duties to Shane Buggle as acting CFO

Shane Buggle has stepped into the role of acting chief financial officer at ANZ Bank after Michelle Jablko’s resignation to take up the same job at Transurban.

Shane Buggle has stepped into the role of acting chief financial officer at ANZ Bank, after Michelle Jablko announced her resignation last December to take up the same job at Transurban.

ANZ is conducting an internal and external search to find a replacement for Ms Jablko, who joined the bank in 2016 and has been a member of the executive committee.

She will remain an ANZ employee until March 26, with Mr Buggle, who was previously group general manager internal audit, to take up the acting CFO role from February 8.

Ms Jablko is transitioning her duties to Mr Buggle while she remains at ANZ.

The current general manager internal audit, Sandra Burns, has been appointed acting group general manager internal audit, also effective from February 8.

In her time as CFO, Ms Jablko was heavily involved in a program of asset sales worth billions of dollars, which was designed to improve the bank’s simplicity and make it easier for customers to deal with it.

Chief executive Shayne Elliott said at the time of her resignation that she was a highly strategic CFO who had transformed the finance function.

At ANZ’s annual result last October, Ms Jablko said the outlook had improved significantly from six months before, when the bank was forecasting a 13 per cent in gross domestic product and a 13 per cent peak in unemployment.

“As we sit here today, that clearly didn’t happen in 2020 but we’re forecasting a slightly longer recovery,” she said.

ANZ, she said, has managed its cost base well, with a focus on absolute cost reductions over the past four years.

This had enabled the group to increase its investment program.

Like with other banks, COVID-19 had accelerated the transition of customers to digital channels, which had also helped to lower costs.

Ms Jablko, is a former investment banker, who spent almost five years with ANZ after stints at UBS and Greenhill Australia. The move to Transurban puts her in contention as a successor to chief executive Scott Charlton at the toll-road giant.