Elliott: 16pct ROE still the aspiration

"We’re not walking away from the goal, we know it’s achievable, we know it got harder and we know we’ve got some work to do. But we’re going to do it."
Shayne Elliott, Chief Financial Officer, ANZ

Speaking after the bank reported a $3.7 billion interim cash profit, Elliott admitted the 16 per cent target would now be harder to achieve but the bank remained committed to the aspirational target.

“It's absolutely achievable," he told BlueNotes exclusively on video. “The real purpose when we set that target some time ago now was to reassure the market…we are not prepared at ANZ to sacrifice return to drive growth. We have to get that balance right."

The weakness in the Australian dollar has probably made the target “about 50 points harder", Elliott noted, while regulatory changes to capital holdings also had an effect.

“There's no doubt the 16 per cent target got a hell of a lot harder to achieve because of a couple of headwinds," he said.

“The point is, we're not walking away from the goal, we know it's achievable, we know it got harder and we know we've got some work to do. But we're going to do it."

He also touched on currency movements, capital generation and credit quality. Watch the video above to find out about more.