BEHIND THE NUMBERS: Embracing Suncorp Bank Integration

On 31 July 2024, ANZ completed the acquisition of Suncorp Bank, onboarding around 3,000 employees, about 1.2 million customers and $54.6 billion of deposits the very next day.

“Today marks exactly 100 days since the acquisition, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the progress.”

When we made our bid to buy Suncorp Bank over two years ago, the transaction made a lot of sense. Queensland has for two decades been among the fastest growing states in Australia and it is positioned to access the fastest growing markets in the world. Suncorp Bank is a business with a strong franchise and it knows main street Queensland like no other.

ANZ is the most international of the Australian banks, therefore Suncorp Bank represented an ideal opportunity to further strengthen our presence in Queensland and its proximity to the region.

Today marks exactly 100 days since the acquisition and we couldn’t be more pleased with the progress. The stability of Suncorp Bank has not only been maintained through this period, but the momentum of the business has grown.

Customer numbers, home lending and deposits have all grown and we are seeing some early wins from the integration. Importantly we are working through the complexity and challenges of the integration with a shared sense of cultural alignment and belief in the benefits the acquisition will yield for both banks.

100 days of listening, learning and seizing on quick wins

Our focus for these first 100 days has been to ensure the stability of Suncorp Bank, listen and learn about the business we have acquired and prepare for the future.

We embarked on a series of discovery workshops across the Retail, Commercial and functional areas which resulted in more than 180 opportunities to improve both banks. These are now being prioritised. These outputs together with our migration plans will ultimately form the integration roadmap for the year ahead.

Importantly we have been busy looking for quick wins to help make us better together. Already we have seen examples where ANZ’s scale and expertise has helped improve the business mix and customer outcomes.

For example, now Suncorp Bank is a bank owned-bank we are able to align risk appetite in key areas to improve customer responsiveness and support our bankers.

By leveraging our international presence, we’ve introduced Suncorp Bank to about 25 investors in Singapore and Hong Kong to source wholesale funding. The ability to access more investors in the Asian market will provide additional flexibility for customers and communities.

We are also focussed on synergy benefits – the opportunities from combining the resources of both businesses and removing duplication.

As we learn more about the quality of Suncorp Bank’s business, people and assets, we are increasingly confident we are well placed to deliver more synergies than expected, faster than initially planned.

We hope to share more detail about the size and speed of synergies at our first-half results in 2025.

Our commitments

To underscore our commitment to Suncorp Bank and Queensland’s growth journey, when the deal was announced we made a series of commitments to partner with government, educators and the private sector. The last 100 days has seen material progress in these commitments – progress with real benefit to Queenslanders.

These include investing in housing to address the supply problems the state is experiencing with its rapid population growth. We recently made announcements including financing for Queensland’s largest affordable housing project for seniors and people with disability.

We have demonstrated strong momentum in meeting a $10 billion commercial lending target for Queensland small-to-medium enterprises. We are on track to hit our three-year commitment target.

We are also establishing a new hub in Brisbane focussed on digital, cloud and data capability, which will employ more than 700 people in these much needed roles over the next five years.

These initiatives demonstrating ANZ’s long-term focus on deepening its presence in Queensland to the benefit of our customers and the people of the Sunshine State.

Cultural integration

One of the key areas of focus for ANZ both in the lead up to acquiring Suncorp Bank and the last 100 days has been to ensure effective cultural integration between the two banks.

Since 31 July we have taken active steps, to understand our cultural similarities and differences. The initial findings have been insightful in helping us navigate any potential friction points. But also in making the most of Suncorp Bank’s strengths.

For example, it is evident Suncorp Bank has a culture of obsession for the customer that permeates all aspects of how they operate. We want to learn and adopt from that culture where we can.

But beyond the measurement of our two cultures through surveys and focus groups, what we are observing in our day-to-day interactions demonstrates a strong and aligned cultural foundation. Leaders across both banks have started to build trusted relationships which will help navigate effectively through the inevitable hurdles.  

The reality of complex integrations is there will always be challenges to overcome. However, the Suncorp Bank leadership team and its 3,000 employees are already resilient following two years of intense separation activity from Suncorp Group.

This resilience will serve Suncorp Bank and ANZ well as we continue to make the changes necessary to strengthen the franchise.

For now, 100 days in we couldn’t be more pleased with the progress – the performance of the Suncorp Bank business, the calibre of its people and the clear opportunities to be realised in the year ahead.

We are well on the way to bringing together the best of ANZ and Suncorp Bank to create one bank that’s better together.

Daniel King is the Managing Director of Suncorp Bank Integration, ANZ