ANZ to cut 4500 roles by September 2026

ANZ has announced plans to cut 3500 staff and 1000 contractors in the next 12 months as part of major changes intended to “simplify the bank”.

In a statement posted to the ASX on Tuesday morning, chief executive Nuno Matos acknowledged this would 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,” he said.

The bank said in addition to axing almost 10 per cent of jobs, it would also be reducing its engagements with consultants and other third parties, impacting approximately 1000 managed service contractors.

However, the bank confirmed there would be “limited impacts to frontline customer facing roles”.

“While reorganising our teams will change the way we structure the bank and deliver our priorities, what won’t change is the dedication of our customer facing bankers who support our customers day in, day out,” Mr Matos said.

The Financial Sector Union blasted the “reckless” and “unhinged” call by the bank, labelling it a betrayal of workers and saying the cuts were “driven by pure greed”.

“ANZ’s plan is pure corporate vandalism: destroying livelihoods, gutting communities and feeding greed,” said union national president Wendy Streets

“ANZ is one of the most profitable banks in the world, yet it is betraying 3500 workers simply to chase even bigger profits. This is out of control — it’s not strategy, it’s unhinged.

“This isn’t a plan, it’s chaos. You cannot build the future of Australia’s biggest bank on secrecy, incompetence and betrayal.”

Mr Matos said the changes were necessary, as ANZ is “operating in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive banking environment”.

“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,” he said.

The bank’s restructuring is expected to cost about $560 million before tax, and will meet the commitments to the Federal and Queensland governments regarding its acquisition of Suncorp Bank.

The sweeping job cuts were first flagged by a Capital Brief report earlier this month.

Mr Matos was forced to apologise in late August after accelerate planned layoffs in automated emails were mistakenly sent to some staff before they had been notified in person.

Staff were meant to be notified about scheduled meetings with their managers but instead received automated emails detailing how to return their work laptops. The bank issued an apology and offered psychological support to affected employees.

The Finance Sector Union has warned the Melbourne-based lender about rushing through the restructure.

The new CEO has said a focus of his turnaround strategy is to improve the bank’s culture and risk management. McKinsey & Co. is conducting a wide-ranging review after the banking regulator in Australia earlier this year slapped additional capital requirements on the firm.

ANZ employs around 42,000 people, including some 10,800 who work in its retail division, according to the company’s most recent annual report.