ANZ reorganises Asia Pacific division

ANZ is positioning itself for further growth in Asia, with the announcement yesterday that it has developed a new organisational structure for its Asia Pacific division. The bank will split the retail and institutional parts of the business.

Owen Wilson, previously managing director international partnerships for the Asia Pacific Division, has been appointed managing director retail Asia.

Mark Whelan, previously joint managing director markets for the institutional division, has been appointed managing director institutional Asia.

Both will report to group managing director Asia Pacific division, Alex Thursby.

ANZ has had the most active investment program in Asia among the big four Australian banks. Its Asian banking partners include Tianjin City Commercial Bank and Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank in China, ANZRoyal in Cambodia, Panin Bank in Indonesia, Vientiane Commercial Bank in Laos, AmBank Group in Malaysia and Sacombank in Vietnam.

Those partnerships are all in the retail and small business banking markets.

The earliest of the partnerships, with PaninBank, dates back to 1999. The pace of expansion has picked up in the past year with partnerships formed this year in China, Malaysia and Laos, and a credit card venture in Vietnam.

Also this year ANZ bought a 10 per cent stake in a Vietnamese investment banking and securities business, Saigon Securities, and in February it acquired 100 per cent of Citizens Security Bank in Guam.

ANZ is pursuing institutional banking opportunities through branches in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam. It has representative offices in Malaysia and Thailand.

Earnings from the region grew by 45 per cent in 2006 to around $100 million. The biggest source of revenue from the region comes from market services (30 per cent in 2006), personal and private banking (23 per cent) and trade and transaction services (20 per cent).

The bank's strategy is based on a view that Asia is under-banked, with a low penetration of bank branches, low levels of consumer debt and relatively unsophisticated products. The bank says each of its partners has a strong footprint in their markets.