In its Pillar 3 release to the ASX, ANZ Group’s executive Australia retail & commercial banking Mark Hand said the bank will soon to enter a period of significant change.
“There’ll be some significant change, periods of significant change, but it’s more about the capability the we’ve put in front of people. Some of that starts today,” said Mr Hand.
Mr Hand said the bank was trying to right the ship and it would take some time for that to happen but the focus was on clarifying the approval process for consumers.
“I think it’s fair to say that we had made it difficult for our people and the brokers to be certain that they’re going to get a response,” said Mr Hand.
ANZ was trying to make sure that everybody understands the policies and ensuring that the broker and customer were responded to in a reasonable timeframe said Mr Hand.
“We’ve lost our way a little bit in that space. We’ve done a lot of work about getting that back to market,” he said.
While there were not too many data points yet, the Pillar 3 report by ANZ showed that while home loan volumes had declined in the June quarter they had improved in July.
Over June owner-occupied volumes were down 0.2 per cent and investor down 1.8 per cent compared with March 2019, which was expected in ANZ’s first-half result presentation.
However, the work ANZ had undertaken had seen applications rise in July and approval turnaround times being reduced.
The report said the marketing campaign had helped these figures but that would take time to flow into home loan FUM growth.
“We’ve already seen that in the marketplace that applications have started coming to us again. We’re seeing volumes that we’re happy with,” said Mr Hand.
ANZ was primarily focused on owner-occupier said Mr Hand but investor numbers had started a comeback forcing the bank to rethink its approach.
“What we have done, rather than move away from owner-occupiers, is sharpen our focus on investor and we’ll continue to do that going forward,” he said.
Mr Hand said the bank was continuing to transform as it recognised what its capabilities needed to be going forward.
“What do we want to be like in two, three and four years’ time so that we know that we’ll be successful, given we know the world has changed a lot,” said Mr Hand.
