As the banking market responds to the Kiwi Commerce Commission’s calls for more competition in retail banking, ANZ in New Zealand is deep into a multi-year digital transformation strategy to deliver reliable, efficient and secure services to customers in a faster way.
At ANZ in New Zealand, the shift to digital has already happened, with more than 90 per cent of ANZ’s customer service interactions taking place through digital channels.
“This has been a massive change over the last few years,” says Maheedhar Kanagala, general manager strategy for ANZ’s personal banking team in New Zealand.
Continuous improvements are now deeply engrained in everything ANZ does. “Our largest investment is upgrading our core technology to a cloud-based banking platform. This will allow us to be more innovative in how we deliver banking services,” he says.
Kanagala concedes at this point, digital first is table stakes. “It's the minimum requirement for our customers. Understanding the customer's motivation and personalising the conversation is what's going to keep us in the game.”
Looking ahead, generative AI will transform the way ANZ’s business runs. “This is highly relevant for revenue growth, productivity and non-financial risk reduction. The immediate opportunities are in customer engagement,” Kanagala adds. On a practical level, this will translate into chat bots and personal assistants.
ANZ is already embracing open banking and the consumer data right legislation. “Our priority is making sure we're safely and securely working with data. At the same time, we welcome innovation and competition in this space. We have already used the open banking rails to deliver online EFTPOS,” says Kanagala.
“This offers our customers another way to pay, potentially saving fees, which is a win for us and customers,” he adds.
In Australia, open banking has all but stalled, although it has been more successfully rolled out in the UK. KPMG New Zealand partner and national industry leader for financial services, Nicola Raynes-Pene, says in terms of Aotearoa’s roll out of open banking, the country can benefit from other countries who have already implemented open banking. This technology facilitates the secure exchange of financial information between banks and third-party applications via application programming interfaces (APIs).
“New Zealand has had the opportunity to see what's worked well and what hasn't in other markets, so we can bring the best of that here,” says KPMG New Zealand partner and national industry leader for financial services, Nicola Raynes-Pene.
Top of mind for ANZ in New Zealand is removing barriers for customers to access bank products and services quickly and easily.
“Our main strategy is improving Kiwis’ financial wellbeing. We want to use next gen tech and data to really help customers on that journey,” says Kanagala.
When it comes to challenges, protecting customers from scams and fraudsters is vital.
“We're committed to shielding customers with layers of protection, including a 24/7 customer protection team, looking at behavioural data to ensure we can act quickly and notify customers of unusual or suspicious transactions on their accounts,” he says.
Dynamic security codes, or card verification value (CCV) numbers, are a market-first innovation for ANZ. These are the three-digit codes on the back of credit cards that give customers a layer of fraud protection when they are shopping or paying for services online.
Using the ANZ goMoney banking app customers can access a dynamic three-digit dynamic security code that updates every 12 hours. They can choose to use this rather than the standard three-digit CVV code on the back of their physical ANZ Visa credit and debit cards.
“So even if a scammer gets hold of your card details online they will not be able to use the three-digit code a day later to make fraudulent transactions,” Kanagala says.
Sustainable and ethical banking and green finance is also a focus. For example, in New Zealand, using a combination of customer data and personal bankers, ANZ staff contact individual customers at times where the bank has identified they may feel financial pressure.
More recently, this has involved contacting customers who are due to refix their home loan in a higher interest rate environment to ensure they are aware of all the options available to them. Staff also contact affected customers during extreme weather events like Cyclone Gabrielle, which hit New Zealand in February 2023.
Raynes-Pene says sustainability and financial inclusion is a growing area of focus in the Kiwi banking culture.
“We see banks working with Iwi (Māori tribes) to provide lending for housing built on whenua Māori (Māori land) and overcoming security and legal issues that have inhibited this in the past. We're also seeing more shared ownership lending options, with banks working with different community housing providers to bring home ownership to more people,” she says.
