Find ANZ Contact

Our Purpose and Strategy

Our expertise, products and services make us a bank. Our people, purpose, values and culture make us ANZ.

Our purpose

Our Purpose is to shape a world where people and communities thrive. It explains ‘why’ we exist and drives everything we do at ANZ, including the choices we make each day about those we serve and how we operate.

Through our purpose we have elevated three areas facing significant societal challenges aligned with our strategy and our reach which include commitments to:

Improving the financial wellbeing of our people, customers and communities by helping them make the most of their money throughout their lives;
Supporting household, business and financial practices that improve environmental sustainability; and
Improving the availability of suitable and affordable housing options for all Australians and New Zealanders.

Our strategy

We bring our purpose to life through our strategy, to improve the financial wellbeing and sustainability of customers through excellent services, tools, and insights that engage and retain them, and help positively change their behaviour.

In particular, we want to help customers:

Our aspiration is to build a simpler, better, more purpose-driven bank, through:

Purpose-led propositions and partnerships that improve financial wellbeing, access to housing and sustainability for our target segments
An agile operating model that encourages innovation and makes it easier for our people to deliver value for our customers quickly
automated business-services supported by modern, cloud-based technology that is more open, efficient, resilient and compliant
Disciplined allocation of resources, enhanced delivery capabilities, and an alignment of systems and incentives

The Bank we're building

We know, from studying organisations globally, that companies with a clear strategy linked to their purpose outperform, over the long term, in terms of returns to shareholders, contribution to society and value to their customers – and the engagement of their staff.

"Over the last five years, we have made great strides, significantly simplifying the bank well ahead of our peers, enduring a once in a century global pandemic and laid the foundations for growth.”

In fact, ANZ’s motto Tenax Propositi (Tenacity of Purpose), adopted in 1951 when the modern ANZ was formed, holds this idea at its core.

By building the financial wellbeing and sustainability of our customers we will have a better reputation, a more engaged team, acquire customers at a lower cost, grow loyalty, generate better financial outcomes – and deliver more capital to reinvest in the business and continue to improve customers’ lives.

It’s a virtuous cycle, captured in this value wheel chart, and the essential philosophy of the Bank We’re Building. The growth in value of each of our businesses, in Australia, New Zealand or Institutional, can be understood in terms of this cycle.

To succeed we must employ people committed to our purpose who listen, learn and adapt. We need to equip them with the best tools and insights. We need to focus on those few things that really improve the financial wellbeing and sustainability of our customers.

Click here to listen to Shayne Elliott speak about "The Bank we're building". For further details refer to this article on ANZ's bluenotes .