ANZ looks to future of wealth business; options open: Elliott

" We want to be talking to our customers about wealth solutions."
Shayne Elliott, ANZ CEO

Speaking about the future of its wealth arm, Elliott told BlueNotes the bank wanted to offer wealth products to customers but was open to those products being created by another organisation.

”We want to be talking to our customers about wealth solutions, about protecting the things that are important to them, about saving for retirement,” he said.

“We’re still going to be in the business, we‘ll just be doing it with a partner who is going to be world class in terms of manufacturing and supplying product.”  

Elliott said the bank had decided its best option was to explore partnerships and similar alternatives in a process which will roll out over 2017.

“We have an obligation to provide [wealth] solutions to our customers,” he said. “We’re a natural place they can come and have a conversation about that. But that doesn’t mean we need to be manufacturing the product.”

“We’re not just putting a ‘for sale’ sign up,” he said. “We want to partner up with someone that’s really world class.”

Elliott stressed the bank came to the process with no fixed idea about the best alternative and is keeping an open mind about the details and timing. He also noted while the wealth, financial advice and insurance sectors had been guilty of poor conduct and this required serious attention, it was not a major factor in the review.

“What we’ll be saying is ‘we want to learn and we want to be open to the best way we can service our customers and we want to be the best at this in Australia’,” he said.

“This is going to take time. This is a pretty big decision.

“I would be very surprised if there were any major announcements before the end of this calendar year.”

Watch the video above to find out more.

Andrew Cornell is managing editor at BlueNotes