ANZ head of wealth Paul White, has been appointed as divisional CIO, responsible for setting and implementing the overarching technology vision and strategy for the bank's Australia business, including ANZX, it new customer-facing proposition.
In the wealth unit, White has been responsible fortechnology, operations, customer resolution and finalising the divestment of ANZ’s former life insurance, superannuation and third-party advice businesses to Zurich and IOOF.
Prior to joining ANZ in 2014, he held roles at HSBC in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, designing and engineering global platforms and leading large-scale transformation projects.
The appointment is a key component of the roll out of ANZX, which is moving to a Beta phase and will be rebranded as 'ANZ Plus' when launched to customers.
Speaking to inhouse magazine, BlueNotes, CEO Shayne Elliott says the concept of ANZx came from an acknowledgment that the business model for retail and small business banking in Australia and New Zealand was being challenged by competition, regulation and technology disruption.
“We sat back and said, ‘there are a couple of options here - we can muddle through, patch up things we’ve got, try to stay ahead of the game. Or we could design for the long-term future and, if you will, disrupt ourselves’. And that’s the path we’ve taken.”
Elliott says the proposition is built around the concept of improving customers’ financial wellbeing with a focus on new technology and a “fundamental rethink” about the bank’s relationship with customers.
“Think of it as a fintech meets big bank approach. It’s fintech in its capability and the way it works but with the brand of an ANZ and… the strength of our balance sheet.”
Over the year ANZ has integrated 11 systems onto the new platform including Salesforce for CRM, ForgeRock for identity and access management, Zafin to manage products and Twilio for contact centres, and built a number of new capabilities for savings and deposits from scratch.
White is based in Sydney and will commence in the role on 30 November 2021.