ANZ CEO Nuno Matos hints at radically different future for Suncorp Bank
Amid Australian banking’s long winter of job cuts, Suncorp executives are turning up in ANZ’s ranks and select managers are told the brand’s days are numbered.
ANZ is preparing to end its Suncorp Bank experiment early, and has told staff to prepare for the withdrawal of Suncorp banking products from the market by April next year ahead of a run-off of the brand by the end of 2026.
The move, communicated to some management last week according to sources inside the bank, will mean new Suncorp-branded home loans, savings products, and term deposits are discontinued from offer by May next year at the latest. Existing customers will retain their Suncorp products, but anyone seeking variations will be pushed to transition to an ANZ account, the sources said.
ANZ, which paid $4.1bn for Suncorp Bank, denied the brand would be axed.
An ANZ spokesman told The Australian: “no decisions have been made on these matters” when asked about the directives conveyed to staff.
ANZ is “absolutely committed to meeting our three-year commitments to the federal and Queensland governments, including maintaining regional branch numbers throughout Australia and no net job losses in Australia as a direct result of the acquisition”, the spokesman said in response to questions about the brand longevity and withdrawal of products.
“We’re proud of the strength of the Suncorp Bank business and focused on supporting its ongoing growth,” he added.
End-2026 is a target for the run-off of the smaller banking brand, and it may take longer to achieve the simplification and elimination of duplication that new chief executive Nuno Matos is championing.
Suncorp Bank executives are starting to populate ANZ’s top ranks, as integration of the bank picks up pace.
Suncorp Bank staff were summoned to an urgent meeting on Tuesday, when they were expected to be briefed on the 3500 jobs to go at ANZ under plans announced by Mr Matos that day. Suncorp Bank consumer distribution executive general manager Kate Zaia revealed in that meeting she and head of marketing Kate Kissane would be joining ANZ. Other bankers would make the jump too.
Sources also queried the merit in retaining Suncorp Bank’s credit license, which requires annual renewal.
A memo from Suncorp Bank boss and acting ANZ retail bank executive Bruce Rush revealed the pair, with Troy Fedder and Jordan Garnsworthy would be moving over to ANZ.
Ms Zaia told staff the promotions were “absolutely brilliant” and the Suncorp bankers were “starting to see these opportunities really manifest” according to an account of the meeting shared with The Australian.
She said Mr Matos was “determined to deliver returns for shareholders and investors at ANZ and has very quickly identified an enormous amount of duplication and waste and bureaucracy in the organisation”.
Mr Matos told the media on Tuesday the losses were not about profitability.
ANZ will soon rebrand its 49 Queensland-based ANZ branches, by co-locating the ANZ and Suncorp shopfronts. This would follow a pattern similar to rival Westpac, which co-located its St George brand to slash branch costs.
ANZ had pledged no net job losses in Queensland under the terms of its acquisition, along with no branch closures.
On Wednesday, National Australia Bank announced it would dump 410 roles amid plans to extinguish 728 positions across the bank.
Those will be mitigated by 127 jobs being added in NAB’s Vietnam and India offices, as it scales back the size of its technology and enterprise operations in Australia.
The Andrew Irvine-led NAB confirmed the reduction, with a spokesman noting the bank was looking at “the way we work and how we’re structured”.
“The environment we operate in is constantly changing and we need to have the right structures alongside the right skills and capabilities in the right locations to help us deliver for our customers,” he said.
“While some roles are no longer required or may move location, we are also creating new roles across all locations as necessary, to ensure we are set up for success and can deliver better outcomes.”
At Westpac, redundancy rounds are expected to claim as many as 2500 staff.
And at ANZ, 1000 consultants will be axed. ANZ has nearly 42,000 staff.
FSU national president Wendy Streets said the banking sector was being gutted in a bid to boost profitability.
“This isn’t one rogue bank, it’s the whole sector driving the same agenda at the expense of workers and communities,” she said. “Cuts this deep don’t just hurt staff, they hollow out services for customers and communities who rely on NAB.”
ANZ picked up Suncorp Bank’s nearly 3000 staff in its July 2024 acquisition, after lobbing a bid for the Queensland-based lender in July 2022.
The deal came with a 5-year licensing deal with the listed insurer Suncorp, which is unaffected by ANZ’s intentions.
The sources said an early end to the Suncorp banking brand seemed inevitable.
Suncorp’s home lending operations are incompatible with ANZ. ANZ has also been feverishly working to migrate the nearly 1.2 million Suncorp Bank customers to its flagship ANZ Plus technology product.
Mr Matos said on Tuesday he wanted ANZ Plus “in the hands of our customers as fast as possible”.
The Portuguese-born banker is concerned by the many duplicated roles across ANZ Plus, ANZ, and Suncorp Bank’s systems.
ANZ Plus was cast by former CEO Shayne Elliott as ANZ’s digital bank of the future. Suncorp Bank sources said they were told after Mr Matos started in May they had 18 months to integrate and execute the migration to ANZ Plus. Its leader, ANZ’s former retail bank boss Maile Carnegie, retired in June.
On Wednesday, its global head of markets Anshul Sidher “stepped down” effective immediately. Michael Peric and Trevor Vail will now jointly lead ANZ’s markets business amid a new search for a managing director.
Mr Peric will remain in Sydney. Mr Vail has recently relocated to Sydney from Singapore, but will now return to Singapore under the changes.
Originally published as ANZ CEO Nuno Matos hints at radically different future for Suncorp Bank
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