Shayne Elliott rules out executive gigs after ANZ

The banking veteran says running ANZ has been ‘the challenge of his life’, and has no desire to take on another corporate executive job when he departs the banking major.

ANZ Bank chief executive Shayne Elliott still has the energy to see the project of his life, the bank’s transformation, come to fruition. But that is it. No more big executive roles for the New Zealand-born banking veteran.

Speaking to The Australian following the announcement of the bank’s record $3.82bn interim profit, Mr Elliot, who joined ANZ in 2009 and has led it since 2016, said ANZ had been “the challenge of his life” and he wanted no other.

“It has been seven years, but it has gone really fast, and in many ways I had a year out with the royal commission and two years with Covid. So we haven’t got as much done as I would have liked,” he said in an interview.

ANZ boss Shayne Elliott. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

Under Mr Elliott’s stewardship, ANZ reversed its previous strategy to expand into Asia, sold 30 non-core businesses such as wealth management and insurance, agreed to pay $4.9bn for Suncorp Bank and is in the process of digitising its banking platform.

“This is the challenge of my life,” Mr Elliott said. “I don’t want a next challenge.”

Mr Elliott is the longest-serving of Australia’s big four bank bosses, and in recent years there has been ongoing speculation about his tenure and who will succeed him as CEO.

When asked, Mr Elliott says he is still motivated but emphasised the bank is well-prepared for whenever the board wanted to make a decision.

“I’ve got the energy to keep going. But more importantly, so is my team. I’ve got a really strong team. We’ve got four great executives running our business lines, three of which are fabulous female executives. And the bank is in great shape. So it’ll be up to the board to decide when that is, but I’m certainly motivated for it.”

“I love working here, and I’m not looking to go onto anything beyond this. You know, I don’t know what will happen then, but certainly it won’t be taking on another executive role that’s anything like this.”

Mr Elliott’s strategy is starting to pay off. On Friday, the bank delivered better than expected earnings and dividends with record revenues.

But he admitted there were still too many manual processes and not enough progress on the transformation that Mr Elliott hopes will underpin the bank’s growth for decades to come.

“I think we’ve got a great plan. It’s great to see it all coming together and delivering results,” he added.

Chairman Paul O’Sullivan said in an interview in the recent past that the bank had some “good” internal options when the time came to replace Mr Elliott.

Two of the three female executives Mr Elliott referenced – New Zealand CEO Antonia Watson and Australian retail boss Maile Carnegie – are considered internal candidates for the job.

The third, Clare Morgan, heads the bank’s commercial division in Australia and is new to ANZ after joining from Commonwealth Bank in March.

Chief financial officer Farhan Faruqui has also been spoken about as a possible fit for the big job.