ANZ CEO Nuno Matos Remarks, Investor Briefing, ANZ 2026 Half Year Results

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Good morning everyone, thank you for joining us.  

It's almost a year since I joined ANZ as CEO. This has been a period of significant change for our bank. 

During this time we launched a refreshed strategy, ANZ 2030, including:

• the definition of our strategic pillars and initiatives
• clear guidance of our major financial metrics and
• we outlined our five immediate priorities.

In parallel we made good progress in clarifying our dividend outlook as well as strengthening our capital position and increasing our collective provisions and coverage ratio.

These changes have resulted in a better-managed, more sustainable business which is delivering stronger financial results. 

While we are early in our transformation, we are already more focused on our customers, simpler, more resilient and have materially improved value for our shareholders.

External environment  

Before turning to performance, I will take a moment to reflect on the external environment.

As Australia’s most international bank, we have a front-row seat to global developments.

The real impact of this crisis remains ahead of us, with the physical flow of critical commodities from the Middle East being key.

While we have made a small downward adjustment to our global GDP forecast, at this stage we still see the global economy growing at around 3.2% this year.

In Australia, consumer and business confidence is materially weaker, however spending and business conditions have only [been] impacted modestly so far and employment growth is stable. 

This supports our central expectation that Australia will avoid a recession, although the situation is extremely dynamic and we are prepared for a range of outcomes.

The longer the flow of oil is constrained, the greater the chance the crisis shifts from being primarily an inflation challenge, to more of a supply and growth challenge, with greater economic impact.

Impact on our customers 

Turning to our customers.

Generally, corporates have been taking prudent steps by shoring up liquidity, prioritising optionality in their treasury management and, perhaps most importantly, improving supply chain resilience. 

For large corporates in sectors which are most impacted such as transport, energy and construction, we are starting to see an increase in working capital needs, reflecting higher input costs, longer shipping routes and buffers for future disruption.

Unlike other recent disruptions, capital markets have remained open, reducing the need for customers to solely draw on bank lending lines.

While our business banking customers in Australia and New Zealand generally entered this period well prepared. For smaller businesses – particularly in the impacted sectors – higher operating costs are placing pressure on margins and cash flow.

We are supporting our business customers through this time, including by offering zero interest loans through the Australian Government’s $1 billion Economic Resilience Program - where we are already seeing strong demand.

Turning to our retail customers, households in both Australia and New Zealand entered this period with high savings buffers and we have not seen any material increase in hardship applications.

However, in recent weeks consumers have needed to sharply increase spending on transport, leaving them with less discretionary spending.

We will continue to monitor emerging pressures and support our customers with appropriate assistance. 

Impact on ANZ

The impact of the current crisis on ANZ’s credit, capital and liquidity position has been minimal as of today. 

Our business is strong and structured to allow us to adapt to periods of uncertainty.

First, we have very limited direct exposure to the Middle East, at less than 0.5% of our total group exposure, and we are focussed on high-quality investment grade counterparties.  

Second, we have a strong balance sheet and continue to have good access to funding markets, with limited increases in funding costs. As one of the world’s most highly rated banks, we remain an attractive destination for global debt investors and depositors. 

And third, we are seeing the benefits of actions taken to transform the profile of ANZ’s portfolio over the last decade. This includes prioritising capital-light flow business over lending, while 83% of our wholesale portfolio is investment grade as reflected in our continuing low loss rates.

That said, the situation is dynamic and the longer it continues, the greater the impact.

Reflecting this raised risk in the external environment, we have taken a collective provision charge of $126 million this half, with our provision coverage ratio up 4 basis points to 1.22% in the half and up 9 basis points since March 2025.

1H26 Overview 

Now turning to our performance for the half. 

Our return on tangible equity was 11.6%, an improvement of 161 basis points.

In parallel, our balance sheet and capital position remains strong, with Common Equity Tier 1 at 12.39% at the end of March having improved 36 basis points from September.

We proposed an interim dividend of 83 cents per share and increased the franking rate to 75% from 70%, reflecting our improved performance in the Australian geography.

Our capital levels are appropriate. As a result, we will not apply a discount to the Dividend Reinvestment Plan for the interim dividend, which will now be neutralised.

ANZ 2030 Overview 

When we launched the ANZ 2030 strategy last October we were clear that this is a two-phase strategy.

The first phase – across FY26 and FY27 – is about delivering on immediate priorities at pace in order to get the basics right, including a substantial improvement in productivity and initial investment for growth.

In the second phase beyond 2027 we will realise the benefits of those strong foundations to drive outperformance. 

In each phase, we expect to improve returns and deliver value.

We are now a quarter of the way through the first stage and already showing tangible progress. 

We are also investing in capabilities now to execute the second phase, which will differentiate ANZ from our peers while significantly improving our customers’ experience and the strength of our human and digital channels. 

ANZ 2030 Five Immediate Priorities

As I said at our strategy day, we have five immediate priorities, and we committed to regular updates on our progress.

#1 Embedding the leadership team and culture reset

First, our new leadership team and our culture reset.

Last year we announced four new executives who are now firmly embedded in their new roles.

Most recently, we appointed Tammy Medard, as Group Executive Business & Private Bank.

And just last week we took another important step, launching our new corporate values, aligned to our purpose and our strategy.

These values are not a slogan or catch phrase.

They are action-oriented values which will guide our people to deliver better outcomes for our customers and shareholders safely and consistently.

#2 Accelerating the integration of Suncorp Bank 

At strategy day, we committed to a safe and secure migration of Suncorp Bank customers to ANZ by June 2027.

This program of work was reset in October 2025. 

As at the end of March, we have delivered 34% of this program and our plan is to get to 57% by the end of this financial year. We remain on track to complete the migration by June 2027.  

During the half, we strengthened the program operating model to support timely decision-making and delivery, with clearer accountabilities and enhanced executive oversight. 

We also made progress building and testing the product solutions required for the integration, as well as the core data solution and new end-to-end testing environment.

Through this process, we will meet all of our Federal and Queensland government commitments.

#3 Delivering a single-customer front-end

At strategy day we also committed to delivering a single-customer front end by September 2027.

Again, this program of work was reset in October 2025. 

By March we completed 13% of this work and expect to have completed 45% by the end of this financial year. We remain on track for full delivery by September 2027.

Once complete, we will serve individuals and small business customers with a single ANZ Digital Platform and brand.

This will bring together the ANZ Plus experience with the broader products and functionality of ANZ’s existing retail and business platforms.

#4 Reducing duplication & simplifying the organisation

We have made significant progress on our fourth immediate priority, simplifying the bank and reducing duplication.

We reduced costs by 9% half on half, excluding significant items, and as a result, our cost to income ratio reduced to 49.4% down from 54.6% in the previous half.

When launching the strategy, we said we expected the impact of these initial productivity improvements to yield pre-tax gross cost savings of around $800 million in FY26. 

We have realised 49% of the identified productivity savings and we are on track to deliver in excess of this in the full year. Farhan will provide more detail.

By the end of April, 78% of our announced 3,500 employee exits had occurred, as well as more than one thousand managed services consultant departures.

#5 Improving non-financial risk management

Fifth, we are making good progress on our non-financial risk management uplift and remain on track to deliver our Root Cause Remediation Plan, approved by APRA last September.

This is a comprehensive framework that details the activities of our enterprise-wide PACT program – standing for People, Accountability, Customers and Trust.

Today we have released the second report by Promontory, the independent reviewer appointed to assess this progress and regularly report to APRA and the Board on the execution of the RCRP.  

All reports are, and will continue to be, available in full on our website. 

We are now through the set-up phase of the PACT program, and on track to largely complete the design phase this year.

Last September, we also announced that ANZ had established an ASIC Matters Resolution Program within Australia Retail and Markets to deliver improvements across a number of areas. 

This work is progressing, and constructive engagement with our regulators on these important matters continues.

Four Strategic Pillars

I will now turn to the strategic initiatives across our divisions with a focus on the Customer First Pillar.

This includes progress in laying the foundations for the second phase of our strategy, to accelerate growth and outperform the market beyond 2027.

Customer First – Australia Retail 

In Australia Retail, excluding Suncorp Bank we have 6.5 million customers and 11.6% of the market view us as their main financial institution.

Our strategic NPS was stable at 2.9, and we remain an uncomfortable number 4 of the majors.

Total deposits grew +2%, with 1% growth in Transact and Save. Home lending grew 1%, at 0.36 times system in the half.

Having improved service and assessment levels in our home loan business, we increased momentum throughout the half, to [0.84] times system in March.

We expect to be around system, or at system, in April and in the second half. This will be further supported by us having joined the First Home Buyers Guarantee Scheme.

Under our ANZ 2030 Customer First strategy, we are laying foundations for growth through differentiated propositions for attractive customer segments - including migrants and the mass affluent - strengthened proprietary origination and elevated channel experience.

Early progress on our customer proposition enhancement includes enabling New Zealand customers relocating to Australia to open accounts before arrival and launching competitive digital international money transfers to meet core migrant and affluent needs.

Alongside this, we are upgrading our physical and digital channels including the delivery of the single customer front-end in 2027, the ongoing modernisation of our call centre platform and ATM Fleet, and a branch refresh across our network. 

Customer First – Business & Private Banking 

In our Business and Private Bank, which has 580,000 customers excluding Suncorp Bank, MFI share was steady at 16.4%.

Business Bank save and transact deposits and lending grew by 2%, with lending continuing to lag the market. NPS for the Division was down, to [-4.2], again, an uncomfortable 4th position. 

Our transformation is focussed on improving customer experience and accelerating growth.  

In contrast, the Private Bank is performing quite well:

• deposits increased by 6%
• investment funds under management were up 8%, and
• lending rose 17%. 

We were recognised with four awards by Euromoney, including Australia’s Best Private Bank.

Under our ANZ 2030 strategy, the transformation of the Business Bank will be driven by building a frontline that matches our ambition in size and quality and ensuring we have the right platform for the right customers, while leveraging our strong private bank foundations. 

In short, our ambition is to have more business bankers, who are highly skilled, with better tools. 

In this regard on the frontline, our initial focus is on up-skilling our business bankers, with our upgraded Banker Academy ready for its first major intake.

In this half we have equipped them with better tools, having launched agentic AI-enabled capability in our CRM. 

With the right foundations in place, we remain committed to increasing business bankers by close to 50% by 2030.

On platforms, we’re accelerating the delivery of the Single Customer Front-End for small business customers. And for our larger business bank customers, we are releasing a new set of improvements to Transactive Global to make it simpler and more agile for this segment.

For Private Bank, we recently completed a strategic review of our products, services, people, and platforms and we are moving forward in accelerating this business.

Customer First – Suncorp Bank 

Suncorp Bank NPS and MFI continued to perform well with a stable customer base of 1.26 million. 

We look forward to bringing these customers into the ANZ franchise by June 2027, delivering benefits of scale and experience to both our customers and our shareholders.

Customer First – Institutional

Our Institutional business continued to deliver strong and consistent earnings, with two highlights: 8% growth in operational deposits and 8% growth in Markets revenue, both fx adjusted half-on-half.

Our Institutional business is relationship-led with a unique international network and a unified digital platform.

We have a clear strategy focused on transaction banking services delivered through market-leading platforms, a capital-light profile and targeted customer acquisition. 

We are seeing the benefits of this strategy. Around a quarter of our strong operational deposits growth has been driven by new clients across target sectors, including financial institutions.  

Our customers benefitted from our continued improvements to our Transactive Global platform, as well as data and insights from our Markets platforms, which is helping them manage risk during a period of financial market volatility.

In Institutional, we have been clear that we focus on supporting our customers in lending in the context of a holistic relationship while balancing risks and returns.

Finally, we recently announced an agreement to acquire Worldline's share in our merchant acquiring joint venture... moving us to full ownership.  

This will allow us to regain control of the merchant customer relationship and ensure it is consistent with our strategy to be a leading payments and transaction bank.

Customer First – New Zealand 

In New Zealand, ANZ remains the largest bank with 2.7 million Personal and Business banking customers. 

Refreshed customer propositions helped increase Personal and Business MFI share, to 33.3% and 31.6% respectively, at the end of March.

On the other hand, our NPS for both Personal and Business remains a challenge to be addressed. 

Save and Transact deposits grew in the first half by 4% in line with the market. 

In New Zealand, we gained share in total deposits and lending across Personal and Business & Agri with the only exception being home lending.

To build on our existing scale, we are re-platforming for the future to bring the customer experience in line with our leadership position, refreshing our customer propositions and investing in business bankers.

The re-platforming roll out is well under way, with the successful migration of customer data records to our new modern banking platform completed in the first half.

3 Key Messages

Now, before I hand to Farhan, I would like to leave you with three key messages:

• Our transformation is running at pace, and we are making good progress in executing our 5 immediate priorities safely, sustainably, and on time.
• In parallel we are investing in line with our ANZ 2030 strategic initiatives, to deliver for our customers, accelerate growth and outperform the market beyond 2027.
• And importantly we are already delivering materially better returns for shareholders.

With that, I will hand over to Farhan. Thank you.

ENDS

For media enquiries contact:

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Tel: +61 457 494 414

Siobhan Jordan
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For analyst enquiries contact:

Kylie Bundrock
Group General Manager, Investor Relations and M&A
Tel: +61 403 738 809

Cameron Davis
Executive Manager, Investor Relations
Tel: +61 421 613 819

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