ANZ Chief Executive Officer Nuno Matos discussed the bank’s annual results and strategic direction in an interview with Alicia Muling, Senior Writer of bluenotes. This marks Matos’s first annual results presentation since taking on the role.
Matos began by describing his observations from his initial six months at ANZ. He said, "We have a strong franchise. We are what I call a combination of two scale markets, Australia and New Zealand; two leadership positions – Institutional and New Zealand; and we are also a very well diversified bank with a presence in the fastest growing region in the world, which is Asia. That's to me, the core." He added that while ANZ performed well in its Institutional and New Zealand divisions, there was less progress in Retail and Business banking in Australia.
Regarding financial performance, Matos reported that ANZ delivered a Return on Tangible Equity of 10.5 percent for the year. The bank improved its capital position by 25 basis points in the second half and declared an 83 cent dividend for the period, franked at 70 percent.
When asked about divisional performance from a customer perspective, Matos highlighted survey feedback: "In Institutional I would like to highlight the fact that our customers, through the Coalition Greenwich survey, they clearly stated that we are the number one bank in all major categories in Australia." He noted growth of 12 percent in transactive and operational deposits within Institutional banking and $2.1 billion revenue from Markets business. In New Zealand operations, deposits grew by 5 percent as ANZ continued to consolidate its leadership position.
Matos acknowledged ongoing challenges: "In Retail and Business banking in Australia we have work to do...we have improved our NPS position, but we are still the number four in Australia." He said retail transactive and savings deposits increased by 12 percent but business banking deposit growth was below system levels.
Outlining ANZ's strategy for coming years—called ANZ 2030—Matos explained it is divided into two phases: “The first phase, in 2026 and ‘27, it's around what we call get the basics right...we are going to grow with the market in terms of revenues, but we are going to outperform the market in productivity.” Immediate priorities include resetting company culture, integrating Suncorp Bank, developing a single-customer front-end platform, improving productivity measures, and addressing non-financial risk (NFR) matters.
Looking ahead to post-2027 plans he said: “We will take advantage of all the investments that we did...and we really put our four pillars to work. Our four pillars are: Customer First, Simplification, Resilience and Delivering Value.”
Matos also announced regulatory progress regarding non-financial risk management: “I would like to confirm that we got the approval for our Root Cause Remediation Plan from APRA around the enforceable undertaking on NFR. This is a significant milestone for us.” He described this as a three-year process focused on redesigning processes during year one followed by implementation over two subsequent years.
The information provided reflects general background as at November 9th 2025; it does not constitute investment advice or take into account individual investor circumstances.