ANZ is recruiting for the newly created role of funds management managing director following the split of its wealth and private bank division that will see the departure of long-time head, Craig Mulholland, in June.
Under the restructure announced last week, the ANZ wealth arm (to be renamed as ‘funds management’) – primarily the $33 billion investment business – will be separated from private banking with new leadership and reporting lines.
The yet-to-be-named head of funds management will report directly to ANZ NZ chief, Antonia Watson, in a high-ranking position among the bank’s local leadership team. Meanwhile, ANZ is also head-hunting for a newly created private bank general manager role, reporting to Ben Kelleher, managing director personal.
In a statement last week, ANZ says Mulholland “had decided to seek new career challenges” after a four-year stint as managing director wealth and private bank that saw the group’s KiwiSaver funds under management more than double.
He first joined the bank in 2011, serving as general counsel and company secretary before moving to the wealth spot.
Paul Huxford replaced long-time ANZ Investments chief investment officer, Graham Ansell, in 2018.
ANZ is the largest mainstream funds management shop in NZ, mostly in the retail market via its three KiwiSaver schemes (now collectively holding about $18 billion, or a quarter of the entire market) and private bank. However, ANZ is also active in the NZ institutional investment market, managing over $3.5 billion.
Like many providers, ANZ is awaiting news of appointments under the revised KiwiSaver default scheme rules. ANZ is one of the nine current default providers but the government is considering slashing the schemes to just five under a process due to conclude at the end of April.
ANZ has about $2 billion in its stand-alone default scheme, although just $1.2 billion remains in the conservative option, which is the statutory asset allocation for KiwiSaver members who have not made an investment choice. Default schemes will shift to a balanced asset allocation when the successor regime begins this December.
According to the most recent ANZ Investments annual accounts, the funds management group booked a profit of almost $58 million over the 12 months to the end of last September on revenue of just above $186 million compared to roughly $55 million and $173 million, respectively, during the previous 12-month period.
The accounts show investment management fees increased from about $159 million to $174 million year-on-year while ‘administration and service fees’ fell from $14.7 million to $12 million over the same period.
Expenses rose from $98.2 million in the 2019 financial year to almost $106 million 12 months later.
The figures exclude the now-closed ANZ-managed Bonus Bonds scheme (covered in separate accounts), which contributed $11 million to the group’s bottom line over the 12 months to the end of last September after collecting funds management revenue of almost $24.8 million: in the previous annual period, the $3 billion or so Bonus Bonds scheme reported a net profit of $21.7 million on $36.2 million income.
ANZ is in the final phases of winding up the culturally significant Bonus Bonds scheme (which mixed lottery-style returns with the allure of bank deposit security). ANZ Investments managed the underlying assets on behalf of Bonus Bonds.