In May this year ANZ announced job cuts at its Melbourne headquarters of around 200 positions. When asked by finews.asia at that time the bank said there were no plans for job cuts in Asia.
Now a report from local Singaporean publication Today has revealed a steady stream of retrenchments at the Australian firms city-state operations. The report details that in the region of 20 percent or 400 positions have been lost in «cost cutting» exercises.
Under Chief Executive Shayne Elliott the bank has been looking to extricate itself from the expansionary Asian vision of his predecessor Mike Smith.
ANZ Wealth to go?
Earlier this year ANZ announced one of the largest drop in earnings at a major Australian bank for almost 10 years, after reporting a 24 percent drop in cash earnings to $2.8 billion.
Following that shock result Elliott made no secret of his desire to trim the banks outgoings and stated that for the immediate future ANZ would be in a period of consolidation, simplification and transition.
The status of the wealth management units of the Melbourne based bank are also currently under review with many expecting the Asian divisions in Hong Kong and Singapore to be potential acquisition targets.
