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ANZ Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott says the bank’s strong 2024 full-year result follows several years of investment into key customer platforms which will help solidify and underpin future growth.
ANZ today released a statutory profit after tax for the full year ended 30 September 2024 of $6,535 million, down 8 per cent on full year 2023’s record profit results.
"We set about a bold, ambitious strategy to re-platform the bank into lower cost, more adaptable platforms. Our future will be a dual-platform future. And we think we're well ahead on that versus our peers.” - Shayne Elliott, ANZ CEO
Revenue was $20,809 million, slightly down from $20,905 million the previous year. The final dividend is 83 cents per share, partially franked at 70 per cent.
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Click here to read the transcript
Speaking with bluenotes on video, Elliott praised the result, particularly given the 2023 financial year produced record earnings. While this was pleasing, his focus was on the “forward indicators” and strategic achievements.
These included the integration of Suncorp Bank, completing one of ANZ’s biggest share buy-backs and continuing the record-breaking results from the Institutional division.
“We completed the acquisition of Suncorp Bank. This is a great deal for shareholders and for customers, welcoming 3,000 employees and about 1.2 million customers into ANZ. And we did that seamlessly,” he said. “Of course that brings revenue opportunities for ANZ and those customers get the benefits of our technology and services in the future.”
In the two years since ANZ announced its intention to buy Suncorp Bank, the key financial metrics had continued to improve. The Queensland-based lender grew customer numbers, home lending and deposits.
“We've got a better bank than we thought at the time when we announced the deal, which is a really great place to start.”
During the year ANZ sold its remaining stake in Malaysian lender AMMB Holdings Bhd (AmBank) which allowed the bank to undertake one of its biggest share buy-backs, Elliott said.
“We're about halfway through that and we've already bought back about 30 million shares.”
Reducing the number of shares on issue was “obviously a good thing for shareholders.”
The future is now
The financial performance of the Institutional division went “from strength to strength”, delivering record revenues, record profit before provisions, record economic profit and record return on equity of 14 per cent, Elliott said.
This stellar performance has been enabled by seven years of sustained investment in the ANZ Transactive Global platform, which is designed for Institutional and large corporate customers.
It provides them with access to services such as cash management, trade finance, loans, commercial cards, markets and data insights – all from one platform.
Elliott said this year the ANZ Plus retail banking platform emerged as a “competitive strength” for the bank, despite only being two years old. He said it had one per cent of all retail deposits in the country and customer numbers grew 84 per cent during the financial year to about 850,000.
An example of the technological advances possible with ANZ Plus was a feature called My Accounts – a first for Australia’s major banks, he said. It uses Open Banking to allow ANZ Plus customers to import their other bank accounts – including transaction details and balances – into one place to provide a full view of their finances.
These two platforms – Transactive Global and ANZ Plus – are integral to ANZ’s future strategy, he said.
“We see a really different future for banking. When I started in 2016, we talked about the fact that customers, regulators and the community are going to want more,” Elliott said.
“We set about a bold, ambitious strategy to re-platform the bank into lower cost, more adaptable platforms. Our future will be a dual-platform future and we think we're well ahead on that versus our peers.”
“If you're a retail or small business customer, your future will be on ANZ Plus. And if you're a midsize company, a large corporate or one of the world's biggest companies, you'll be on Transactive Global. And the good news is that's already a reality.”
Australia in the wider world
Turning to the global economic environment, Elliott said while the “smart money” was on the next Reserve Bank of Australia interest rate move being a cut, the shifting geopolitical order meant “a lot of things that are out of our control”.
“What's happening around the world has a big impact, particularly on imported inflation and here in Australia,” Elliott said.
“I know the RBA and the government and many of us out in the economy and still seeing some signs of robust strength. At the same time, there's lots of signs of stress and people are doing it really hard.”
Elliott said it was difficult to balance those two things to determine whether any rate cut would come before Christmas, early in the new year or later next year.
“What is important is, irrespective of the environment, the benefit of having a really strong balance sheet and a strong operating culture is that we're here to help customers, whatever, may happen,” Elliott said.
“We're conscious some customers are doing it hard. Thankfully, it's relatively modest in terms of numbers. And the good news is all banks are helping people work through the tough times.”
Brett Foley is the Managing Editor of bluenotes
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Elliott: strong results and a dual-platform future
2024-11-08
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