Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has announced it will sack 3,500 employees and reduce the use of contractors under a major restructuring unveiled by new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nuno Matos costing A$560 million before tax.
ANZ said these staff, who represent about 8% of its global workforce of 42,400, would leave by September 2026.
The Big Four bank also said it was ending or reviewing engagements with about 1,000 consultants and other third parties.
It expected ‘limited’ impact on front-line customer-facing roles and would meet its commitments related to its acquisition of Suncorp’s (ASX: SUN) banking business.
“We are operating in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive banking environment,” Matos said in an ASX announcement.
“As we continue our strategic review, we are eliminating duplication and complexity, stopping work that doesn’t support our priorities and sharpening our focus on improving our non-financial risk management practices across the bank.”
The bank said its results for the second half of the 2025 financial year (FY25) would include a restructuring charge of about $560 million (US$369 million) before tax, with the final charge to be included in the FY25 results on 10 November.
Matos was appointed CEO on 12 May, joining with more than 30 years’ experience in retail, commercial and wholesale banking, including in his most recent role as CEO of Wealth and Personal Banking at HSBC.
Finance Sector Union National President Wendy Streets said ANZ had told the union the work performed by the people being sacked would stop.
"That’s not a plan, that’s chaos," she was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
ANZ will provide a strategy update to investors on 13 October.
The restructure had been underway for about a month after Matos brought in consultancy firm McKinsey for a review, according to media reports.
Some senior staff learnt of their redundancies through an email telling them to return their laptops.
ANZ (ASX: ANZ) shares were trading 5.5 cents (0.17%) lower at $32.90 at the time of writing, capitalising the Big Four bank at $97.74 billion.
