Renovation not an option as ANZ launches new banking platform

ANZ Bank chief executive Shayne Elliott says launching a new retail banking platform will equip the lender to fight off a wave of competitors from outside the traditional banking sector, as technology-based players try to pick off the industry’s profits.

Mr Elliott and head of retail banking Maile Carnegie on Wednesday unveiled a new technology platform that will be launched mid-year, saying the service would allow customers to open accounts in minutes, while providing detailed insights on customers’ finances, and being cheaper and more flexible for the bank to run.

The new platform will initially provide deposit accounts, and ANZ aims to launch digital home loans — which it says could be approved as in as little as five to 10 minutes — next year.

Mr Elliott conceded ANZ had been something of a laggard on technology, and said the new digital service, which is called ANZ Plus and has more than 1000 staff, could help to address this.

Eventually, the bank aims to have its millions of retail and small business customers move their accounts to the new platform, though this will require them to go through online identity checks. Mr Elliott said moving its existing customers to the new platform would take “a few years.”

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Sydney, Mr Elliott said the launch of ANZ Plus was “totally” aimed at preparing the bank for new competitors including fintech and big tech players.

“The competitive landscape five, six, seven, ten years ago was just the big four, a couple of regionals, maybe the odd foreign bank who was here. Now if we’re doing a board presentation for example, and we’re talking about who are our competitors… the list just goes on and on and on,” he said.

He said competition was intensifying because technology-based players without costly legacy systems were picking niche products such as payments, consumer credit or foreign exchange. The new platform would allow the bank to make 100 changes to its product features in a month, compared with one feature change per month with its current system, he said.

“We need to have a platform, or foundation that allows us to compete with those things. Today, in our current legacy system, we can’t cope with change very well,” Mr Elliott said.