Maile Carnegie emerges as the big winner from ANZ restructure

With Mark Hand set to leave, the former Google executive will head the retail bank and face the challenge of turning around its troubled mortgage business.

ANZ’s new head of retail banking Maile Carnegie faces the challenging of turning around the troubled mortgage business. Picture: Jeremy Piper/ The Australian

Maile Carnegie has emerged as the winner of a big ANZ restructure to create a stand-alone commercial business and combines digital and retail, with the former Google Australia boss to lead retail after Mark Hand’s resignation.

Mr Hand’s departure, foreshadowed in The Australian on Monday, follows the poor performance of the bank’s mortgage operation, which has given up market share due to slow turnaround times.

Chief executive Shayne Elliott said ANZ recognised that retail banking was changing fast.

“We needed to use the world’s best digital technology to deliver a customer proposition centred around the financial wellbeing of our customers while also improving the speed and resilience of our operations,” Mr Elliott said.

The ANZ chief said Ms Carnegie, who will report to him, was the right person to lead the retail bank and the digital operation, which includes the digital transformation program ANZx.

Her recent banking experience, he said, as well as an extensive career in running consumer and digital businesses, meant she had an “exceptional” set of skills that would evolve the retail bank.

She had brought a different perspective since joining the executive committee in 2016, and made a significant contribution in reshaping the bank’s digital operations.

Ms Carnegie’s elevation puts her in the running to succeed Mr Elliott, who has been CEO since January 2016.

The other internal candidate is institutional boss Mark Whelan.

Ms Carnegie, however, has the challenge of revitalising the home-lending business, which has surrendered market share to Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank.

ANZ chairman Paul O’Sullivan indicated the board’s frustration with the division’s performance at last year’s annual meeting.

He said the business had been unable to respond to a significant increase in the demand for loans, and had lost market share as a result.

“Naturally, this has been a major focus for the board and management, and we are confident that the systemic actions being undertaken by management will address these issues, including increased investment in automation and process improvement,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

“As a result we expect our Australian home-loan portfolio to return to growth in this half and for ANZ’s growth to be in line with system growth sometime in the second half of this financial year.”

Mr Elliott said that, in discussing the changes with Mr Hand, the retail and commercial boss had felt it was the right time to pursue opportunities outside ANZ.

Mr Hand, he said, had given ANZ “tremendous” service over many decades and had been a key member of the executive committee since 2018.

He would remain with the bank in the coming months to help establish the new commercial division.