ANZ Bank has told its staff in China it is committed to staying in the country, despite announcing plans to lay off hundreds of technology and operations employees as part of a restructure of its global operations.
The big four bank opened a service centre in the city of Chengdu in 2011 “to support its business growth across the region” and that office now employs more than 1000 people working on the bank’s digital growth strategy.
The bank sent an email to staff on Wednesday, obtained by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, that reaffirms the group’s desire to stay in the region while outlining plans to shift jobs offshore and sack 850 staff from the centre over the next 18 months.
ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott in Hong Kong.Credit:Anthony Kwan
“We remain completely committed to China, which is a critical, core market for ANZ,” the email, signed by ANZ regional head Steve Harris, said.
“In the next few months, we will start to gradually shift work currently provided by Chengdu teams to Bengaluru [India], Manila or Melbourne.
“We want to be very clear that this decision is based on ANZ’s ongoing focus to simplify the bank and prepare for a changing external environment.”
ANZ will retain around 100 staff across eight locations in China working with institutional and corporate clients, with those employed in technology and back-end operations roles set to face redundancy.
The big four bank’s expansion into Asia was driven by former chief executive Mike Smith, who was recruited from HSBC’s Hong Kong office.
Since taking over in 2016, chief executive Shayne Elliott has reduced the bank’s footprint in the region by selling businesses and shedding billions of dollars in business loans as part of a strategy to wind back retail banking.
