ANZ is set to slash thousands of jobs over the next year as newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer Nuno Matos begins to make his mark at the helm of the major bank.
ANZ said on Tuesday that approximately 3,500 workers will be cut by September 2026. The bank also plans to scale back its use of consultants and other third-party providers, impacting an additional 1,000 managed services contractors.
It's unclear which of ANZ's roughly 43,000 roles will be eliminated. But the bank said the cuts are intended to streamline operations and eliminate overlapping functions, with "limited impacts to frontline customer-facing roles."
"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," Matos said.
ANZ said it will provide a strategy update to investors on 13 October.
The layoffs also include a $560 million restructuring charge.
“We are operating in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive banking environment," Matos said. “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."
ANZ did not respond to requests for further comments. But a person familiar with the matter said the layoffs are aimed more at reducing inefficiencies in ANZ's head office than targeting broker roles.
Matos took over as head honcho of the major bank in May. But it didn't take long for the new CEO to voice concerns with ANZ's culture. In a series of town halls in July, Matos said he was unhappy with the bank's service standards and said "the culture has to pivot."
“We will be in permanent transformation; in today’s business environment, change is the name of the game,” Matos said in July. “There is not a single person in this company that cannot transform the company a little bit.”
Matos steps into ANZ's leadership team at a critical moment for the mortgage sector. Although recent interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) could bring further relief to mortgage costs, issues like cost-of-living, limited housing supply and climbing property prices remain major concerns for both homeowners and investors. At the same time, the impact of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s new housing schemes are still uncertain.
Meanwhile, many of Australia's banks have revealed plans this year to move away from the third-party broker channel, even as borrowers become increasingly reliant on brokers for their financial needs.
According to the latest figures, released in June, approximately 76.8% of all new residential home loans in Australia were written by mortgage brokers, according to the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA).
In the case of ANZ, the bank appears to be leaning into the third-party broker channel, which is made up of roughly 19,000 brokers.
In ANZ's Australia Retail division, home loans grew 3% in 2025's first half, year-over-year.
"ANZ remains committed to supporting the broker channel as they play a pivotal role in helping Australians' achieve homeownership," a representative from ANZ told Australian Broker in May. "The broker network is a strategic pillar of ANZ’s mortgage business, and we continue to invest in its growth."
