ANZ will move its insurance offerings to the fore after announcing a restructure of its wealth management business with plans to promote insurance via its branch network, online presence and advice networks.
ANZ, Chief Executive, Shayne Elliott said the shift was part of aligning its wealth management and insurance businesses closer to customers and would better align its distribution of wealth products and services with its retail and commercial banking businesses.
“The key design principle here is really to bring the wealth business as close as possible to our customers and that inevitably means to marry it with our retail businesses,” he said.
“We have an obligation to provide access for our customers, to both insurance products to protect the things that they love and to save for their future. That’s our responsibility so we need to have that front and centre in all the ways that customers interact with us – whether that’s in a branch, whether that’s through private banking relationships or whether that’s online. So these changes are really designed just to cement that relationship even closer at the front-end.”
His comments follow the departure of ANZ, Group Executive Wealth, Marketing and Innovation, Joyce Phillips which was announced as part of a restructure of its wealth management business.
This restructure will result in the Australian insurance business being added to superannuation and investment activities within a new business unit – Australia Wealth – to be headed by current ANZ, Managing Director Insurance, Alexis George.
ANZ advice would be managed under two separate executives with ANZ, Group Executive Australia, Fred Ohlsson to oversee ANZ Private Banking while ANZ-branded distribution, including ANZ Financial Planning, will become part of Retail Distribution under Catriona Noble.
