ANZ restructuring 400 roles via offshoring, redundancies

A restructure taking place at ANZ will see over 400 roles impacted, 100 of which expected to be axed entirely.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on HR Leader’s sister brand, Banking Daily.

ANZ’s New Zealand tech sector is likely to be the most heavily impacted, with lead engineers, product owners, project managers and quality assurance engineers among the roles potentially under the axe, as the bank looks to centralise its software testing under one partner.

While negotiations for the restructure have not been finalised, a source speaking with The Australian Financial Review that was not authorised to speak publicly said ANZ was in discussions with HCLTech and Infosys, both of which are Indian IT giants, which has spurred on speculation that many of the roles will be shifted overseas.

ANZ has 40,000 staff and has already expanded its offshore worker count to 11,500 in its Indian and Philippine technology hubs.

The Finance Sector Union (FSU) said ANZ planned to cull 100 staff and move 13 offshore.

The restructure is part of ANZ CEO Nuno Matos’ ANZ 2030 Strategy, as the latest cut brings the bank closer to the chief’s goal of reducing the workforce by 3,500 jobs by September 2026, with additional cost cutting not being ruled out.

“While some roles will conclude, we’re directing our focus to areas that will deliver the biggest difference for our customers, including investing in data, cyber security and engineering. We will continue to support our teams during this process,” said a spokesperson for ANZ.

Matos has previously acknowledged that the cuts would be difficult but said they were what was best for the organisation.

“My ambition is for ANZ to be the best bank for our customers, while ensuring we sustainably meet the performance expected over the long-term,” he said last September.

“We know this will be difficult news for some of our staff. While some of these changes have already commenced, we are committed to working through the impacts as quickly and safely as we can, with both care and respect for our teams affected.”

This comes as CBA has come under fire from the FSU having announced plans to cut over 230 staff.

“Around 230 already weary Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) workers are facing a bleak Christmas after learning that their jobs will be gone by year’s end,” an FSU release reads.

“The latest ‘structural and operational changes’ tragically brings the number of CBA workers jettisoned by Australia’s richest bank this year to 1,000.”

According to the release, NSW technology staff are to be the hardest hit with 172 on the chopping block. The remaining of the total 232 roles are facing redeployment.

For the end of the year, areas like business banking, institutional banking and markets, retail banking services and support units and the chief operations office are also facing structural changes.

"These savage job cuts confirm that there will never be a profit margin big enough to satisfy Australia’s richest bank,” said FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano.

“Despite ordinary workers helping the bank deliver a record $11 billion profit, Matt Comyn still deems it necessary to pull the plug on another 172 jobs just in time for Christmas.

“It is no wonder that 75 per cent of CBA staff the FSU surveyed say they fear losing their job and half are considering leaving the company.

As the FSU pointed out, this comes just as CBA CEO Matt Comyn has scored himself a 30 per cent pay rise, giving him “9 million reasons to celebrate this Christmas”, the union added, taking aim at the CBA chief.

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