ANZ to drop axe on 4500 jobs in cost-cutting spree
The Big Four bank will slash nearly one in 10 jobs amid a cost-cutting spree under new CEO Nuno Matos.
ANZ will cut almost 10 per cent of jobs at the bank, announcing plans to slash 3500 jobs and 1000 contractors, in a move branded by unions as “unhinged”.
The banking major warned staff early on Tuesday many would be out of a job, with expectations much of the damage will be felt in ANZ’s back office retail and business bank operations, with its institution arm and recent acquisition Suncorp Bank to be largely spared. ANZ had agreed to preserve roles at Suncorp Bank under its $4.9bn acquisition of the Queensland lender.
The loss of so many jobs will not be felt in the bank’s branches, according to ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos, who said the cuts were a “difficult announcement”.
The Portuguese-born chief executive took on the running of ANZ on May 12, taking over from Kiwi banker Shayne Elliott, who had run it since 2016.
ANZ said the cuts would cost the lender $560m, with the roles to go aimed at reducing duplication of jobs and functions across the bank’s nearly 42,000 staff.
Mr Matos told a business event in Sydney on Tuesday the cuts were aimed at “stopping projects and initiatives that don’t align with our priorities”.
He said ANZ had to “embrace the speed at which society is evolving … We can be part of it or pay the consequences.”
Mr Matos said ANZ was in “change mode”… (and) very careful in terms of how fast we can go.”
It comes as ANZ staff publicly protest over the uncertainty surrounding the business, taking to social media platforms amid the “Nuno-geddon”.
In an internal note, Mr Matos told staff he promised to “try to minimise this period of uncertainty by working through the changes as quickly and safely as possible”.
ANZ has been quietly slashing jobs at the bank for weeks. The scale of the proposed cuts sees ANZ overshoot market estimates of how deep Mr Matos was expected to slash the headcount.
MST Marquee senior analyst Brian Johnson had previously tipped expectations that ANZ could cut up to 2000 jobs, describing this as “plausible”.
Finance Sector Union national president Wendy Streets attacked the move, saying the bank had failed to articulate how it would handle the deep cuts.
“ANZ is betraying 3500 workers in one of the world’s most profitable banking sectors, cutting jobs simply to chase even bigger profits. This is out of control – it’s not strategy, it’s unhinged,” she said.
“When the FSU asked ANZ who will actually do the work of the 3500 sacked staff, the bank had no answer, except to say the work will simply stop. That’s not a plan, that’s chaos.”
Ms Streets said the cuts were a “disgraceful act”. “If we can’t rely on one of our most profitable top 10 ASX companies … to employ and offer good jobs, I’m not sure what we can rely on,” she said.
She said Mr Matos’s claims that ANZ was a “flagging bank” were inaccurate and could not justify such massive cuts. “Since when is a $7bn profit flagging and failing as a bank?” she asked. “We say this is contempt and a disgrace to the staff and the communities from which they derive massive profit.”
Mr Matos’s first four months as CEO of ANZ have been “nothing but chaos”, Ms Streets said. “There has been disruption and our members have never felt less job security than they do today.”
Staff at ANZ’s Sydney office told The Australian they were concerned about what it meant for others in the bank. “We’re small potatoes, we can’t change anything,” one said.
Additional reporting: Bimini Plesser William Seitam
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