Sweeping restructure come as CEO Nuno Matos seeks to overhaul banking giant's cost base
ANZ has announced an unprecedented restructure by slashing up to 3,500 permanent roles and 1,000 contractor positions, as new chief executive Nuno Matos (pictured) seeks to overhaul the bank’s cost base and sharpen its strategic focus.
The decision, which equates to almost 10% of the workforce, comes with a $560 million restructuring charge that will be booked in the full-year results due in November.
Analysts and industry insiders say the cuts underscore the pressure on the Big Four lenders to remain competitive in a mortgage market increasingly dominated by price wars, digital challengers and shifting customer expectations.
While the bank has indicated the majority of roles will be gone by September 2026, Matos has made clear the timetable will move faster. Speaking at an AFR summit in Sydney, he said:
"Employees like certainty, we all like certainty in our lives." He confirmed he expects the bulk of redundancies to be "concentrated at the beginning" of next year.
The scale of the reduction far exceeds market forecasts. MST Marquee senior analyst Brian Johnson had earlier suggested ANZ might trim as many as 2,000 positions, calling that figure “plausible”. The 4,500 total demonstrates a far more aggressive stance by the incoming CEO, who only weeks into his tenure is seeking to stamp authority on the bank’s strategy.
ANZ has stressed that frontline, customer-facing staff, presumably including mortgage professionals, will be largely spared, and that no positions at Suncorp Bank in Queensland – acquired for $4.9 billion – will be cut. The bank had committed to maintain headcount at Suncorp Bank as part of its takeover undertakings.
Instead, the restructure targets duplication across the group, consulting spend, and non-essential workstreams. Another 1,000 external contractors will be terminated, though ANZ will continue to engage McKinsey for strategic advice. A hiring freeze remains in place.
Matos said: “As we continue our strategic review, we are eliminating duplication and complexity, stopping work that doesn’t support our priorities and sharpening our focus on improving our non-financial risk management practices across the bank.”
The decision has ignited a backlash from the Finance Sector Union, with national president Wendy Streets describing the cull as reckless:
“ANZ is betraying 3,500 workers in one of the world’s most profitable banking sectors, cutting jobs simply to chase even bigger profits. This is out of control – it’s not strategy, it’s unhinged.”
The union claims the bank has offered little detail on how critical work will be redistributed once positions are eliminated, warning the changes could affect service delivery and operational resilience.
Protests have already surfaced from employees concerned about uncertainty, even as the bank has pledged to treat staff “with care and respect, and conclude the process as quickly as we can”.
ANZ’s cuts are the largest staff reduction announced by a major bank in years, and set a new benchmark for the scale of restructuring that incumbents may pursue.
For brokers and mortgage advisers, the priority will be to monitor whether service times, credit decisioning, and customer experience at ANZ deteriorate – or improve – as the shake-up progresses.
Matos, addressing business leaders in Sydney, framed the move as necessary to restore long-term sustainability.
His ambition, he said, was for ANZ to become “the best bank for our customers, while ensuring we sustainably meet the performance expected over the long term”.
Whether the bank can achieve that goal while maintaining or improving home lending service levels while cutting so dramatically will be the question mortgage professionals – and borrowers – will be watching closely.
