ANZ chief executive says he has no choice but to start with a blank sheet of paper and reinvent the institution to prepare for a digital world.
In a long and wide ranging interview with Australian publication «The Australian Financial Review» (behind paywall) Elliott talks about his plan to restructure ANZ by streamlining the workforce, and diluting its dependency on mortgage brokers and branches.
finews.asia reported recently that ANZ has been re-engineering its branch network.
Pan Asian Reversal
Elliott who took over from former CEO Mike Smith - who had been intent on making ANZ a pan-Asian business - has been strategically disengaging the bank away from his predecessors plan.
ANZ has sold its wealth units in Asia and is in the process of going over three bids for its onshore wealth units. It also sold off interests in China and is keen to dispose of its Malaysian holdings.
Embracing Technological Change
The chief executive has been keen to embrace the digitalization of the bank to turn it into a highly productive data and technology-centric company that uses predictive modelling to disrupt larger incumbents via radical, risk-based pricing.
To that end the bank has hired more senior executives from the IT and consumer industries than from the traditional banking ranks.
While its peer rivals have been locked in a high profile battle with Apple - Elliott chose to sacrifice existing revenues to cooperate with ApplePay as opposed to fighting the tech giant through the courts.
ANZ rolled out Apple Pay to more than 500,000 customers with a Mastercard credit card, following an earlier release to its five million debit card holders in April 2016.
