By Scott Murdoch
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's ANZ Group said on Tuesday it would shed 3,500 jobs in the next year and take a A$560 million ($369 million) restructuring charge, in one of the largest rounds of job cuts in the sector in recent years.
The cuts were ordered by new CEO Nuno Matos, who joined ANZ in May after heading HSBC's personal banking and wealth operations.
The bank, which is Australia's fourth-largest by market capitalisation, said the move would simplify operations and reduce duplication.
The cuts represent about an 8% reduction of ANZ's 43,000 full-time employees.
ANZ said it would also sack 1,000 contractors and review consultants and third-party contractor agreements.
Matos is due to release a strategic review on October 13.
"We are operating in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive banking environment," Matos said in a statement.
"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."
ANZ said the job cuts would mostly not affect customer-facing roles and the bank would meet its commitment to retaining Suncorp Bank jobs after the A$4.9 billion merger finalised last year.
"We think investors will positively receive the strong intent to drive better efficiency in the bank," said Citigroup analyst Thomas Strong, adding the job cuts could improve productivity in ANZ's retail bank and technology divisions.
Finance Sector Union national president Wendy Streets said the job cuts were aimed at boosting the bank's profitability.
"When the FSU asked ANZ who will actually do the work of the 3,500 sacked staff, the bank had no answer, except to say the work will simply stop," Streets said.
"That’s not a plan, that’s chaos."
Matos said ANZ would increase its focus on non-financial risk work that had arisen after a bond trading scandal at the bank highlighted cultural problems within its markets trading business.
($1 = 1.5177 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney; Additional reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates and Jamie Freed)
