Chronican quits ANZ

The chief executive of ANZ's Australian operations, Phil Chronican, has resigned after five years with the bank.

Mark Whelan, who is currently managing director of global commercial banking, will take over from Chronican.

David Hisco, the chief executive of ANZ New Zealand, will take over Chronican's responsibilities as global head of retail.

According to a media release issued by the bank yesterday, Chronican is leaving to pursue a non-executive career after a 32-year career in banking.

Before joining ANZ in 2009, Chronican was the head of institutional banking at Westpac and before that he was Westpac's chief financial officer.

Australian retail and business banking is ANZ's biggest division. Last year it contributed A$3 billion to total group earnings of $7.3 billion.

Under Chronican's leadership, ANZ's mortgage market share rose from around 13.8 per cent to 15.2 per cent.

On the other hand, ANZ gave up leadership in retail bank customer satisfaction among the big banks on his watch, falling from first to last in the Roy Morgan ratings.

And despite some notable mobile banking initiatives, such as goMoney, ANZ's Australian operations had relatively modest technology ambitions, focusing on cost-saving projects rather than a big core system replacement or transformation project.

One question that arises from news of Chronican's departure is why the bank needs an Australian CEO at all. The bank's executive committee meetings must be crowded affairs.