Best bank for Australian dollar: ANZ

ANZ is expanding its solutions for the Aussie cross with other Asian currencies such as AUD/CNH and AUD/THB, as the Australian bank aims to enhance its status in AUD, and balance cross-border flows into and out of its home country.

“In the past several months, we’ve been able to increase internalisation,” says Mayank Navalakha, head of FX and PM (precious metal) options at ANZ. “And that has resulted [in the] improvement of offering rates for a lot of our customers on both sides of the transactions.”

ANZ was voted Best bank for Australian dollar at the 2019 FX Week Best Bank Awards.

After exiting the retail segment and focusing on corporate clients, ANZ seeks to build a deeper relationship with clients by providing bespoke FX solutions.

“We’ve seen significant traction in being able to provide bespoke solutions to clients within and outside of Australia,” says Navalakha. “For Aussie crosses, we’ve been able to advise clients, multinational corporations within Australia, on how to hedge their global exposures.”

This means ANZ is growing its presence in providing non-AUD solutions, leveraging its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region.

We’ve seen significant traction in being able to provide bespoke solutions to clients within and outside of Australia

Mayank Navalakha, ANZ

“For example, there was an Australian company that was redistributing their asset allocations outside of Australia, and they required to do a EUR/USD transaction to hedge their residual currency risks and we facilitated that,” says Navalakha. “And I think that’s been a critical success for us, because our footprint is very focused in the region.”  

China focus

One of the key objectives at ANZ is to enhance the connectivity within the Asian countries with its home markets. We continue to look for better ways to serve businesses from China and connecting them to Australia, New Zealand, as well as other Apac countries, says Herr-Ling Yeoh, head of principal FX at ANZ.

“Australia continues to attract capital from a broad range of investors and companies around the globe, with a considerable amount of Asian capital finding its way to Australia,” Yeoh says. “With a weaker Australian dollar and bilateral trade agreements in place, the outlook remains optimistic for increased cross-border activity, which ANZ can easily support through our Asia-Pacific connections.”

ANZ is one of only five non-Chinese banks and one of two Australian banks with market-maker status in direct AUD/CNY conversion.

With about 90 staff providing FX sales, trading and research in Australia, ANZ offers a suite of G10 and Asia-Pacific/emerging market currencies. Its services include FX spot, hedging, options, risk management, technology and research support in both its Australian home market and overseas.

The full list of winners of the 2019 FX Week Best Banks Awards