Australian banks have no competitive advantage that will guarantee them success in Asian retail banking markets, ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott says.Elliott said there was a time when a bank from a developed economy could set up in an Asian market confident that it had better technology, better products and a brand that would attract the best talent.Speaking at a Thomson Reuters event in Sydney yesterday, Elliott said none of those advantages applied today.Using India as an example, he said the brightest young bankers would be attracted to working at a local bank, such as ICICI, in preference to working for a foreign bank.ANZ is in the process of getting out of retail banking in Asia. It will maintain its corporate and institutional banking presence in the region - a sector where it believes it does have a competitive advantage.It is also reviewing a number of joint ventures. "Minority holdings are very difficult. Conditions do change and things go wrong," Elliott said."I would never rule them out but it is fraught with risks."Elliott conceded that the bank's problems in Asian retail banking markets were not just to do with a lack of competitive advantage; there were management issues as well."It is a complex organisation. We operate in 35 countries. It was run as a loose confederation of businesses."We did not have visibility. We are changing that by doing fewer things in the region and by running it in a more appropriate way."One area where Elliott is happy to maintain an offshore presence is the back office work it does in the Philippines and India.Asked about the political risk of doing business in a country, such as the Philippines, where the politics have taken a volatile turn, he said the advantages outweighed the political risks."There is very good talent there and it is on a big scale."