The ANZ logo protects CEO Mike Smith

Date

2015

Description

Creator of the image: Unknown
Date of the image creation: 2015
Medium: Photograph
Person depicted: Mike Smith, ANZ boss

This image depicts ANZ’s CEO Mike Smith as he speaks at Bloomberg’s Sydney office in 2015. Smith is viewed from below, with the lower part of his face obscured by the ANZ logo, which dominates the frame. His aging pinky-white head looms above the logo, seeming small and fleshy compared to the financial structure beneath him. Smith was talking about the challenges that the banking sector was facing as a result of increasing digitization and how the web is reshaping people's expectations. During the question-and-answer period, Smith said:

'I have to look at what is Alibaba doing? What is Google Doing? What is Amazon doing? Because that customer experience they’re creating — people are going to ask, ‘Why can’t you do that as a bank?’ And the problem banks have got is that their IT systems are designed around an accounting system. Core banking is all about an accounting system. And we have to move to a customer-driven system, a behaviour-driven system. We have all the information — it’s a question of making that transition, which is, I think, going to be the real challenge for banks. I think banks who get this right are really going to benefit enormously, because then you can access markets you couldn’t before.'

ANZ was initially founded in 1835. With many names changes along the way, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited — commonly now called ANZ — is now one of the five big banks in Australia. With almost a trillion dollars in assets, and operations in more than thirty countries, ANZ is a powerful player in Australasia finance.

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