Matos: ANZ to double down on strengths

Incoming ANZ chief executive officer Nuno Matos says he is honoured to succeed retiring CEO Shayne Elliott and that his focus will be to “double down on our strengths” including the revitalised retail and institutional divisions.

“I am very, very excited and very conscious about the opportunity, the responsibility" - Nuno Matos

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Speaking to bluenotes on the announcement of his appointment, Matos said Elliott’s strategy of a simplified structure and world class tools, including ANZ Plus and Transactive Global was “very clear” and the “right one” for the bank.

“It's a business that connects Australia, New Zealand with the world and I think it makes absolute sense. It's a franchise that is very difficult to replicate,” Matos said.

“I must confess it is a very emotional moment for me, this is a moment when you feel you achieve your dreams.”

“My energy and my commitment is to make the coming journey even more special for all customers, all employees and shareholders.”

The Portuguese-born Matos has a 34-year career in banking, with deep global experience across retail, commercial, corporate and markets.

“(ANZ’s) combination of domestic banking and international banking… is very appealing. I feel it fits well with my profile. And when I was looking into it, I certainly said to myself, ‘I would love to be part of this journey’,” he said.

Most recently Matos served as Chief Executive Officer, Wealth and Personal Banking at HSBC in Hong Kong.

During his career Matos has also managed complex financial institution migrations, which places him well to lead the next phase of ANZ’s evolution.

“It's about capturing the results of the work, the hard work the teams have been doing in the last nine years where the company was significantly simplified,” Matos said.

“(It is about) trying to get the last mile with a performance driven approach with a lot of passion. And I would like to invite everybody to that journey.”

Matos will take up the role in July next year.

At that time Shayne Elliott, who has been CEO since 2016, will retire from the bank.

During his time as CEO ANZ Elliott has successfully driven the acquisition of Suncorp Bank and more broadly transformed the bank’s financial position and culture, including selling non-core assets and investing in leading technology platforms to underpin growth.

“This is about leading a historic company with almost 200 years of history, with a clear purpose to help communities and people to thrive,” Matos said.

“And it is being part of a big family, being a company with 40,000 employees for whom I'm going to work for.”

“And also to deliver to 10 million customers in almost 30 markets and being based in Australia, which is such a fantastic market,” he said.

Matos said he was passionate about the diversity at ANZ and said his own background was incredibly varied.

“At home we always speak three languages every single day in a non-coordinated way,” he said.

“We are kind of United Nations at home.”

Matos’ grandfather came from India and moved to Mozambique in his thirties. In Africa, he met his future wife, who hailed from Portugal.

“I met my wife in Peru, and we have two boys. One was born in Spain, and one was born in Brazil.”

More broadly, Matos said he had long wanted to run a big domestic bank in an important market.

“ANZ is exactly that,” he said. “It's a combination of a big domestic market bank actually in two markets, Australia and New Zealand.”

Matos said it was a privilege to take over the bank from Elliott.

“I am very, very excited, and very conscious about the opportunity, the responsibility.”

“My energy and my commitment is to make the coming journey even more special for all customers, all employees and shareholders.”

Nuno Matos will commence his role as Chief Executive Officer, ANZ on 3 July 2025.