At the 2025 Annual General Meeting of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), the Chief Executive Officer addressed shareholders, employees, and stakeholders in Sydney. The CEO began by acknowledging the Gadigal People of the Eora nation as Traditional Owners of the land and expressed condolences for those affected by a recent terrorist attack at Bondi Beach.
Reflecting on his tenure since joining ANZ in May, the CEO noted that he had met with various stakeholders across key markets including Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India, the UK, and Singapore. He discussed an extensive strategic review aimed at positioning ANZ for future growth.
During 2025, ANZ settled regulatory matters with ASIC and made organizational changes to simplify operations. The CEO highlighted that statutory profit fell by 10% due to significant items related to these actions. Excluding these items, cash profit remained flat from the prior year at $6.9 billion, while Cash Return on Tangible Equity declined slightly to 10.5%. The bank’s capital position was described as strong, with a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of 12.03% at September’s end.
The CEO introduced ANZ’s refreshed 2030 strategy announced in October. This plan aims to improve performance in Australia Retail and Business & Private Banking divisions while maintaining leadership in Institutional and New Zealand businesses. The strategy is built around four pillars: putting customers first; simplifying operations; strengthening resilience through risk management; and delivering value for stakeholders.
Implementation will occur in two phases: immediate priorities through fiscal years 2026-2027 focusing on productivity improvements and foundational investments; followed by accelerated growth beyond fiscal year 2027.
Leadership changes were noted as a priority for executing this strategy, with four new members joining the Executive Committee. “Together we are building a culture of clarity, decisiveness, self-awareness, execution and accountability – while fostering an engaged workforce motivated to execute on our strategy,” said the CEO.
The integration of Suncorp Bank is underway with plans to migrate customers safely by June 2027. Additionally, delivery of ANZ Plus digital services is set for all retail and SME banking customers by September 2027.
Customer service enhancements include increasing bankers in Australia Retail and Business & Private Banking by up to 50% over five years and launching Bank@Post access at more than 3,300 Australia Post offices nationwide.
Addressing economic pressures faced by customers due to cost-of-living increases, the CEO reported that as of September about four out of every thousand Australian home loan customers and two out of every thousand small business customers were receiving hardship assistance. More than two-thirds who entered hardship have resolved their situation within twelve months.
Efforts against scams resulted in prevention or recovery of over $220 million in scam-related funds across Australia and New Zealand during 2025.
Community support initiatives included launching a First Nations Strategy focused on economic self-determination over ten years and continuing financial education programs such as Saver Plus—which has helped more than 66,000 participants since its inception—and MoneyMinded for adults on lower incomes.
In closing remarks reviewing 2025 as a period of necessary change laying foundations for growth into 2026 and beyond, the CEO stated: “First, our franchise has a strong competitive position... Second, we have a significant opportunity...to improve our performance in Australia Retail and Business Banking... And third, we have the right strategy – ANZ 2030 – to unlock and deliver value from these opportunities.”
He thanked customers for their trust during the year along with employees driving change aligned with strategic goals.