ANZX beats into the unknown

Ian Rogers

The reconfiguring of ANZ – a project dubbed ‘ANZX’ – is gathering momentum, with  beta testing some of the brighter ideas underway, Shayne Elliott, the ANZ CEO told a Trans-Tasman Circle confab yesterday.

Fintech thinking and methods might revolve into something at ANZ, or in the manner of MANDATA, CS90 and so much else a big budget will be wasted.

What sort of budget? Near 900 people, Elliott told the Circle’s ‘V-vent’.

There are 650 odd ‘family and friends’ users in this beta dabble by ANZ.

ANZX is not really under the covers but flown under the radar so far; a mere mention in a May column by Elliott the only reference on the bank’s Bluenotes portal.

Elliott was candid and philosophical in his one-hour chat that also featured Antonia Watson, the group’s New Zealand CEO.

ANZ and most banks deliver slops that make it rough for any simple Simon concept of financial well-being for most consumer and business clients; that was the essence of Elliott’s point.

“We said banking makes those things hard [so customers] have to fight against the [bank] machine,” he said,

“We give you a whole bunch of products and you have to manipulate them, and work around them.

“What if you had a bank that made those things intuitive - and naturally resolve that," he asked.

“A lot of how banks make many is because people do poor things,” Elliott said.

“They don’t pay down the most expensive debt. They leave money in a lazy account. They borrow too much.

Elliott posed the overarching question for the ANZX wander through the idealistic lands of the unknown bankers.

“What if we said: ‘we do well and generate revenue if we do the right thing’.”

ANZX, the bank CEO, clarified, this is “the reimagining of our purpose; it’s all new tech.”

The most promising elements aimed at both SME and retail ANZ aims to roll out over the next year or so.