Best Banks Awards: ANZ

The global banking sector has undergone a major adjustment in strategy, following the financial crisis of 2008, and Australian banks are no exception. ANZ Bank’s current journey started in 2016, when Shane Elliott was appointed its chief executive officer.

“You would have seen, since 2016, some divestiture of retail businesses through Asia, as we turned back our attention to becoming a fundamentally institutional bank that provides a link between Australia and New Zealand, and large corporate clients in the Asia region,” says Shayne Collins, managing director of markets at ANZ.

ANZ has been voted the winner of the Best Bank for Australian Dollar category at the 2018 FX Week Best Banks Awards, thanks to its renewed focus on core corporate clients, where the dealer aims to grow organically and deepen relationships.

Deeper relationships mean clients in the markets business are also potentially suitable for the bank’s institutional division, which provides cash management, trade, and transaction banking and loan products, among other services.

“Our strategy doesn’t stop us from growing in Asia, but, generally, we focus on clients that have some sort of tie with Australia and New Zealand,” says Collins.

ANZ’s markets business services financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, real-money clients and banks, as well as large corporate clients.

We’ve exited the retail segment through most of Asia and instead concentrated on the institutional customer base, which has been quite successful

Shayne Collins, ANZ

“Leveraging that connection with our home markets allows us to ultimately grow our business and be more relevant to our customers, rather than trying to be all things to all people, including commercial clients and retail,” says Collins.

“We’ve exited the retail segment through most of Asia and instead concentrated on the institutional customer base, which has been quite successful over the last few years,” he adds.

Asian presence

The bank’s key FX competencies are the Australian and New Zealand dollars, but it has also been building out its capabilities in the Chinese renminbi, both on- and offshore, and across time zones. The expansion of the renminbi business comes as a natural progression for the dealer, which has a local presence in the Asian powerhouse.

“We have [a] presence in deliverable and non-deliverable currencies across the majority of Asian countries, including China. The crosses we provide prices in are obviously mostly in the Aussie dollar, but a lot of trade is denominated in the US dollar, and increasingly the renminbi,” Collins adds.

ANZ is also active in the cross-currency swaps markets across Asian crosses, experiencing a lot of demand for hedging products from clients trading both deliverable and non-deliverable products, as a result of its presence in 34 countries in the region.

“We are going to keep focusing on getting better and better in our core competencies, and on running the markets business in line with the wider divisional strategy,” says Collins.

“We are not going to fall into the trap of trying to do everything for all clients, but instead we want to identify those clients with a similar footprint to ours and partner with them for deep, multi-product relationships,” he adds.

Interviews with the 2018 FX Week Best Banks Awards winners

JP Morgan

Best Bank Overall for Foreign Exchange Dealing

Best Bank for FX for Banks

Best Bank for FX for Investors

Best Bank for Spot FX

Best Bank for FX Forwards

Best Bank for EUR/USD

Best Bank for USD/JPY

Best Bank for EUR/JPY

Best Bank for E-Trading

Citi

Best Bank for FX for Corporates

Best Bank for Currency Options

Best Bank for Structured Products

Best Bank for FX Prime Brokerage

Best Bank for FX in North America

Best Bank for Emerging European, Middle Eastern and African Currencies

Best Bank for FX Research and Strategy

HSBC

Best Bank for FX in Asia-Pacific

Best Bank for Renminbi

Best Bank for Emerging Asian Currencies

Deutsche Bank

Best Bank for FX in the Eurozone

ANZ

Best Bank for Australian Dollar

Barclays

Best Bank for GBP/USD

Best Bank for EUR/GBP

Best Bank for FX in London

UBS

Best Bank for Swiss Franc

NatWest Markets

Best Bank for FX Post-Trade Services

360T

Best Professional e-Trading Venue

Best Vendor for Dealing Technology

Refinitiv

Best Broker for Forward FX

Best Broker for Emerging Markets FX

LCH

Best FX Clearing House

EBS

Best Broker for Spot FX

Bloomberg

Best Market Data Provider for FX

Danske Bank

Best Bank for Scandinavian Currencies

Standard Bank

Best Bank for South African Rand

Best Bank for African Currencies excluding ZAR

BMO Capital Markets

Best Bank for Canadian Dollar

Banco Santander

Best Bank for Emerging Latin American Currencies

kACE

Best Vendor for Risk Management/Options Pricing Software

Saxo Bank

Best Prime-of-Prime House

BGC (no interview)

Best Broker for Currency Options