ANZ looks to wealth management

The ANZ Banking Group has specifically earmarked Australian wealth management as a growth proposition, after reporting a solid first half statutory profit of $2.7 billion.

However, the big banking group acknowledged that its bottom line had been crimped by the natural disasters that had occurred in both Australia and New Zealand.

ANZ chief executive, Mike Smith (pictured), said the result was in line with the company’s first quarter trading update and demonstrated good underlying momentum in its core businesses and continued progress with respect to its strategic goals.

Looking at the company’s Australian operations, he said that profit before provisions had increased by 4 per cent but added that the net profit had been impacted by a 69 per cent increase in the provision charge, largely due to the impacts from severe weather events.

Referring directly to the wealth business, Smith said it was making good progress with respect to the OnePath integration program and that the cost to income ratio had improved by 60 basis points with management having been strengthened with new appointments to leadership roles.

Those appointments included the recruitment of former Colonial First State general manager of advice, Paul Barrett.

He said wealth management growth rates were expected to improve as the integration process (with ING) took hold.

“The focus is on distribution efficiency and developing products which more easily integrated into the bank channel and work well in a simpler superannuation environment,” he said.

While being upbeat about the outlook for ANZ, Smith said the operating environment continued to present challenges with parts of the Australian economy having hit a flat spot with consumers and businesses becoming more conservative after the global financial crisis.