Supporting Small and
Medium Business
With 1.93 million small businesses in Australia, employing more than 5 million people – a strong small business sector is a critical driver of our economy.
During the global financial crisis we wanted to ensure our small and medium sized business customers had continued access to funding. We committed to $8 billion of lending in 2009, matching our 2008 lending to the sector and as part this program increased our small business lending by 10%. We also employed an additional 130 small business specialists across Australia; improved online management tools and introduced a support package of initiatives to help our customers facing financial difficulty.
In response to customer feedback, we have streamlined the finance application process, reducing the level of documentation required for secured lending to existing customers. We continue to assist our customers and the sector to develop and build their businesses by offering access to a range of free business tools, online courses and industry data via our small business hub (www.thesbhub.com.au).
We have also recently introduced a new business comparison and insights website (www.anzbusinessinsights.com), which is helping small businesses to compare trading data with other like businesses in their local area.
Our focus and efforts are clearly paying off, with ANZ once again this year being awarded the 2010 CANSTAR CANNEX Best Value Australia Small Business Bank.
Business Profile
The business caters for ANZ’s Retail, Commercial, Wealth Management and Institutional customers around Australia.
Our Retail business delivers a range of banking products and services to customers and includes our national network of 814 branches. Our Commercial Banking business provides banking solutions for rural customers, small to medium enterprises and corporate customers, and includes Esanda, Australia’s leading auto financier.
Our Wealth Management business provides insurance, investments and superannuation services acquired from ING along with ANZ Private, E*TRADE and ANZ Financial Planning and Investment Lending. For more information about our Institutional business please click here.
Business Highlights
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Strong underlying profit# growth driven by a good performance across all businesses and a reduction in the provision charge.
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Acquired the ING Group’s 51% shareholding in the wealth management and life insurance joint ventures in Australia and New Zealand.
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Completed the integration of Landmark Financial Services making us Australia’s second largest agri-bank.
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Removed or reduced 27 fees, delivering annualised benefits to customers of around $180 million.
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Improved our retail customer satisfaction, which remains the highest of all major banks.
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Won 2010 Home Loan Lender of the Year in the Money Magazine Consumer Finance Awards for the 11th time, making ANZ Australia’s most awarded home lender.
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Launched a range of new products and services to meet customer needs, including the ANZ Business Visa Debit and ANZ Access Visa Debit cards, the GoMoney free iPhone application, and E*TRADE’s award winning share trading tax reporting service, Tax Tools.
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Assisted more than 10,000 customers facing financial difficulty through our Customer Connect program.
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Employed an additional 215 Indigenous trainees in our branch network across Australia.
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Worked with the Australian Government and our community partners to bring Saver Plus, our matched savings and financial capability program to an additional 3,320 low-income Australians.
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Invested over $11.9m in our community through donations, volunteering and in-kind support.
Performance Tables
# Underlying profit is adjusted for material items that are not part of the normal ongoing operations of the Group including one-off gains and losses, non-continuing businesses, timing differences on economic hedges and acquisition related costs. 1. Data includes Institutional employees. 2. Women in management is calculated by ‘PeopleSoft’ which, in addition to capturing staff currently actively working for and being paid by ANZ (FTE) also captures staff on special leave including leave without pay, parental leave and long-term sick leave. 3. Pending external verification. Includes scope 1 and 2 emissions, developed in accordance with NGERS. ING Australia data has been included from 1 December 2009 when ANZ took operational control. A detailed GHG profile (Scope 1, 2 and 3) and our full environmental report is available on anz.com. 4. Restated due to new calculation methodologies and the inclusion of additional emission sources in our organisational boundary. 5. Includes both office and print (customer) paper. Data does not include ING Australia. Pending external verification.