The Australian & New Zealand Banking group (usually referred to as ANZ) is one of the big four Australian banks. With roots back to 1835, it’s also one of the oldest lending institutions in Australia. Its current iteration has existed since 1970, when the Australasia Bank combined with the English, Scottish and Australian Bank, the biggest merger in Australian banking history at the time.
These days, ANZ is the fourth largest bank in the nation by market capitalisation at $75.93 billion, just behind NAB in third ($76.92 billion). ANZ also ranks fourth by total residents' assets, the size of the loan book and total household deposits. It employs more than 50,000 people, servicing millions of customers across more than 30 countries.
ANZ Plus
ANZ Plus is a digital banking platform launched in 2022. Customers have access to an everyday account, a savings account with built in goals, the ANZ Plus home loan, as well as the ANZ Plus app to manage their accounts. ANZ Plus is a bit different from other bank applications in that customers aren’t able to access ANZ’s entire range of banking services through the app. If you have an existing home loan through ANZ for example, you are currently unable to access it through ANZ Plus.
There’s quite a few attractive features that come with ANZ plus. Spending is automatically broken into categories to help with budgeting, there are no monthly fees, and customers can also contact one of the ANZ Plus coaches if they are looking for financial support. Its savings account is also pretty competitive.
ANZ in 2023
ANZ is one of the four major players that dominate Australian banking. CommBank, Westpac, NAB and ANZ collectively hold roughly 72% of the value of Australia’s banking system assets, and over 75% of residential mortgages.
ANZ, which are currently the smallest of the four, agreed a $4.9 billion deal in 2022 to merge with Suncorp. This would allow ANZ to leapfrog NAB and become the third biggest bank in Australia. As of September 2023 though, the ACCC has blocked this merger, citing concerns it would “further entrench the oligopoly market structure that is highly concentrated within the four major banks”.
ANZ intends to appeal the decision as of September 2023.
