Check against delivery
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this Committee.
I am joined by Dr Tony Warren, who leads our Communications and Public Affairs team.
Since joining ANZ in May, I have spoken to many of our customers about the part we play in the success of Australian families, businesses, and communities.
Across the country, I have been made to feel welcome and confident of the opportunities before the nation.
In an unsettled world, Australia is an attractive, stable economy.
ANZ's role is to help our customers, including home buyers and small businesses, make the most of these opportunities.
I have also listened to customers, regulators and community leaders about the standard of behaviour that they expect from ANZ.
That standard is clear: we must put those we serve at the centre of everythingwe do.
Unfortunately, ANZ has not always lived up to this expectation.
In April, the bank entered a court enforceable undertaking with APRA relating to our management of non-financial risk.
This is, at its most simple, about how we care for our customers.
And in September, ASIC and ANZ made a submission to the Federal Court to resolve two matters relating to our Markets business and three relating to our Australian Retail business.
The failings of non-financial risk management that led to these regulatory actions were serious and unacceptable.
Some of them occurred when our customers were at their most vulnerable - facing hardship, bereavement, or relying on us to act with integrity.
The fact that they happened means that, while ANZ sought to implement the very clear lessons of the Royal Commission, this was not always done effectively and successfully.
As CEO, allow me to be direct - the bank fell short of what is expected of us and, for that, I offer an unreserved apology.
In accordance with APRA's CPS511 regulation, executives have been held accountable for our failures.
From my first day at ANZ, which started 6 months ago, I have been clear that the bank must change to better serve our customers.
This work is very much underway.
We have appointed the right leadership to reshape the bank, and I personally oversee our actions on non-financial risk to ensure progress, drive accountability, and remove roadblocks.
Importantly, APRA recently approved our plan to address the root causes of our risk shortcomings.
These root causes are extremely disappointing and show we have a significant amount of work to do.
However, we will address them through a comprehensive program of work over the next three years.
Through oversight by an independent reviewer, we will be transparent about our progress so that you can judge us by our actions.
In parallel, last month I announced ANZ 2030, an update on the bank's priorities and strategy for the next five years.
At its centre is putting our customers first and managing risk better.
To do this, ANZ needs to be simpler.
With Suncorp and our ANZ Classic and ANZ Plus platforms, we have been effectively running three separate retail banks in Australia.
This duplication adds operational complexity, increases risk and limits our ability to serve our customers well.
Staying on this path was not an option.
We are now accelerating both the delivery of the ANZ Plus front-end and the integration of Suncorp Bank, with these customers joining ANZ by June 2027.
But simplifying ANZ involves some very difficult decisions.
One of those is that we need let go of around 3,500 employees and 1,000 contractors.
We know that this is a very difficult time, in particular for staff leaving the bank and their families.
As part of this, I have asked my team to continue to work closely with the Financial Services Union to ensure that, together, we can support its members - our employees.
While we have different perspectives on what is happening at ANZ, my hope and my actions is that we continue to have a constructive relationship with the union.
I also want to assure you there will be very limited impact on frontline roles in branches, contact centres and customer support.
In fact, as part of our new strategy, we will put more home lenders into our branches, aiming to increase them by up to 50% over the next five years.
We are also aiming to increase our small business bankers by close to 50%, allowing us to better help businesses succeed in their communities.
As we make these changes, there will be more resources directed to our non-financial risk management to improve capability, and we will meet our government obligations in respect of the purchase of Suncorp Bank.
Thank you so much, and I welcome your questions on how our customers are doing and anything else you would like to address.
