{"id":36200,"date":"2023-10-20T14:42:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/four-things-we-learnt-about-fintech-from-the-new-anz-ceos-first-public-qa-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:42:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:42:41","slug":"four-things-we-learnt-about-fintech-from-the-new-anz-ceos-first-public-qa-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/four-things-we-learnt-about-fintech-from-the-new-anz-ceos-first-public-qa-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Four things we learnt about fintech from the new ANZ CEO\u2019s first public Q&A – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

By Chad Barendse<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last week Fintech Melbourne had a rare opportunity to ask ANZ\u2019s new CEO Shayne Elliott the big questions, as he held his first public Q&A session in front of Australia\u2019s financial services industry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It immediately struck me how\u00a0comfortable he was talking to a crowd full of\u00a0entrepreneurs,\u00a0developers and data scientists – and answering questions from them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It felt as though we were having conversation with him over coffee as he laid out his vision to transform one of Australia’s oldest banks\u00a0into one more digitally focused and one that\u00a0acts more like a disruptive company.<\/p>\n

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Startups need to keep banks on their toes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Elliott started by highlighting the importance of Australia’s financial services industry to the country’s economy, and the role that startups play in “keeping banks on their toes” when it comes to innovation that improves the customer experience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“ANZ is\u00a0no longer just competing with rival banks but with companies like Uber and Airbnb that are now defining what a good customer experience looks like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Acknowledging that “startups are needed for the system to work”, Elliott stated that ANZ\u00a0is set to invest in and partner up with\u00a0emerging companies\u00a0that are focused on improving the customer experience.<\/p>\n

He \u00a0even encouraged the entrepreneurs in the room to email him or his chief technology officer Patrick Maes directly if they had a product or idea that could help ANZ improve its customer service.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t going to be easy for the big banks<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

When asked how he planned to create an innovative culture at ANZ, Elliott stated that\u00a0he fully expected to face challenges in integrating\u00a0the agile\u00a0and entrepreneurial culture\u00a0of Silicon Valley into the conservative and risk-focused culture of the bank.<\/p>\n

“Banking is about identifying and mitigating risk; innovation is about taking\u00a0risk, it is a challenge for us to figure out how to support both of those cultures in the same place”, he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said\u00a0that ANZ would need to attract and retain more curious and outward-thinking people, and that he hoped in the future he would see his executive team more interested in technology and talking more about it during their board meetings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Banks are ready to unlock open data<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Elliott also touched on big data and how the bank would use its treasure trove of customer data. In the past it was\u00a0too difficult and costly to do anything meaningful with the data, however now that the cost of storing and analysing it has dramatically reduced, the bank is now starting to look at ways in which it could leverage its rich source of data to\u00a0improve the customer experience.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Why the future will be built on open data<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

There are enormous opportunities for fintechs in the SME market<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Elliott also explained that he sees enormous opportunities for fintechs to innovate in the small to medium business market, because small business owners\u00a0are far more engaged than retail customers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWith retail customers, once they have they\u00a0have a mortgage they lose interest in the bank, while small business owners on the other hand are passionately interested in their business and so remain highly engaged,” he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As for the opportunities, Elliott said that he\u00a0saw a gap in the market\u00a0for better technologies to make the process of running a business simpler.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“One of the main reasons people give up on running their own business is that they are frustrated with spending too much\u00a0time on administration, so there is big scope for any fintech players who are working on improving that particular customer experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chad Barendse is a member of Fintech Melbourne and a business consultant at NAB.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and Soundcloud<\/a>.
<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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