ANZ Chief Executive Shayne Elliott told analysts that the regulatory changes over the past eight years, the competitive landscape and the need to focus resources meant ANZ was no longer the best owner for Asian wealth and retail businesses. Asia however he said, remains a key component to ANZ's strategy.
Melbourne headquartered ANZ Bank has said it plans to focus on Institutional Banking in Asia. The bank is ranked a top four corporate bank with a significant ongoing presence in 15 Asian countries and $43 billion in gross lending assets.
The new strategy was outlined by the CEO following the somewhat out of the blue announcement that ANZ is selling its Retail and Wealth business in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Indonesia to Singapore’s DBS Bank.
Wealth Offering Not Compelling
Speaking in Hong Kong Elliot said that his banks strategic priority is to create a simpler, better capitalised, better balanced bank focussed on attractive areas where it can carve out winning positions.
For Shayne Elliott without greater scale ANZ’s competitive position in Retail and Wealth in Asia is not as compelling.
Asia Remains Core to ANZ’s Strategy
ANZ believes the transaction simplifies their business while allowing them to continue to benefit from higher levels of growth in the region through a focus on its largest, most successful business in Asia - banking large corporate and institutional clients driven by trade and capital flows particularly with Australia and New Zealand.
«By focussing our resources in Asia, whether that is capital, technology or people, on Institutional Banking, we can continue to build a world-class, capital efficient business by strengthening our network and the support we provide to our key institutional clients,» Elliott said.
