Incoming Chief Executive Officer Nuno Matos speaks with Elizabeth Rudall, Corporate Communications

Elizabeth Rudall: Welcome, Nuno. Congratulations on your appointment as the next CEO of ANZ. How are you feeling?

Nuno Matos: Well, obviously, this is a very, very special moment to me. It really means a lot and I'm very, very honoured for being here with you at this moment in Melbourne. Well, on one hand, this is about leading a historical company with almost 200 years of history, with a clear purpose to help communities and people to thrive. And it's being part of a big family, the ANZ family, with 40,000 employees for whom I'm going to work for, and also to deliver to 10 million customers in almost 30 markets – and being based in Australia, such a fantastic market. Personally, I must confess it's a very emotional moment to me. This is a moment where you feel you achieve your dreams. You deliver your personal goals. After a long career where I feel I worked very hard and being granted the leadership of a project of this calibre feels very, very special. I am very excited, very energised, very conscious about the opportunity, the responsibility. I'm eager to start, obviously, and it's special to me. I must say something – my energy and my commitment is to make this a special moment for everybody – for customers, for employees and for shareholders.   

Elizabeth Rudall: Everyone's keen to know more about who you are. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Nuno Matos: Sure. I am part of a very diverse family. Both my heritage and my direct family. My grandfather was an Indian and in his 30s he moved to Africa into Mozambique, where he met my grandmother, she came from Portugal. And my mother lived in Africa until she was a teenager. I was born then in Portugal. And then when I started my international career, my family, if you will, is around that concept. I met my wife in Peru – she is Peruvian – and we have two boys. One was born in Spain, the other was born in Brazil. And actually at home, we always speak three languages, every single day – in a non-coordinated way, by the way. And I can't forget important family elements - our two dogs, one from the US and the other from Mexico. We are kind of a United Nations at home. Well, my career, I started 34 years ago in Portugal. I started in the Portuguese Central Bank – I was a regulator. Then I moved into Santander, a global Spanish bank where I stayed for 21 years and I worked in many markets, and the last nine years in HSBC. It has been a career, I would say, that is quite international. I lived with my family in nine markets, and I visit many others. I am a person who is quite positive and energetic, passionate about life and business, and I expect to bring that to the ANZ team.

Elizabeth Rudall: Fantastic. And what attracted you to the role leading ANZ into the future?  

Nuno Matos: Well, I went straight from college to banking – this was 34 years ago – and I still love banking today the same way I loved it back then. I went for my career, and I think around ten years ago, I started having this ambition. I thought I could aspire to lead an international organisation or a big domestic bank in an important market. Well, ANZ is exactly that. It's a combination of a big domestic market bank – actually in two markets, Australia and New Zealand – and the most international Australian bank through its leading Institutional franchise. So this combination of domestic banking and international banking, it's very appealing. I feel it fits well with my profile and when I looked into it, I certainly said to myself, I would love to be part of this journey. So this is, in my opinion, a perfect match. And geographically wise, as my career proves, I always went where the opportunity was, where the opportunities felt right. And I went with my family to bond with the local community and make a lot of friends. In that regard, after living in nine markets from Asia to the Americas, Australia feels the perfect country to live, to be happy and to develop new friends and new professional connections. And we are certainly eager to start that.

Elizabeth Rudall: Great, and as you prepare to join ANZ next July, how are you thinking about our strategy?

Nuno Matos: To me, in a very clear way, the strategy that today ANZ is conducting is the right one. The direction is correct. ANZ has fantastic competitive position foundations. It has two scale markets, one in Australia where we are a top four bank in the 14^th economy in the world, and then New Zealand where we are a market leader. By the way, scale is the most important factor in banking and ANZ is not short of it. In parallel, we have a leading institutional franchise, which more than that is already focused, in my opinion, on the right things. It is focused on a capital light model, transaction banking wise, and also in market flow products. It's a business that connects Australia and New Zealand with the world and I think it makes absolute sense. It's a franchise, I would say, that is very difficult to replicate. It's a lasting and meaningful competitive advantage. So for the future, the strategy is very clear. We have to make sure that we double down in our strengths – the two scale markets and our leading institutional franchise. So to everybody, I want to say it very clearly, it will be a positive agenda. It will be to build on top of it, to evolve, to move forwards, to really be focused on our customers, on a strategy which is quite clear. If you want, it's about capturing the results of the work – the hard work – the teams have been doing in the last nine years, where the company was significantly simplified, where we sold many businesses that didn't make sense and we concentrated on the strengths that really deliver our future. And at the same time, we started the re-platforming of the business, both on the wholesale side, Transactive, and on the retail side with Plus. So it's about capturing that opportunity. Now to capture that, we will need to execute fast with pace, with precision, trying to get the last mile with the performance driven approach, with a lot of passion. And I would like to invite everybody to that journey.

Elizabeth Rudall: So where to from here? What are the next steps?

Nuno Matos: Well, let's start focusing on ANZ for a second. These are moments of transition and it always means a little bit of anxiety. On my side, due to commitments with my current company, I can't start until mid-2025. So I have a single ask for all the employees of ANZ – let's rally around Shayne, our CEO, and let's continue to support him the same way everybody did in the last nine years so we can execute our strategy. Let's focus on the customers. Let's focus on the positive things. The strategy is already clear to everybody. For me, well, with my limitations, I will try to meet as many ANZ team members as possible, as many people as possible to know the company and I will try to listen, I will learn and I will observe, so I can start in mid-2025 with as much knowledge as possible. And I must confess something in parallel, I'm a big history lover, so I will do a deep dive on the culture and history of Australia and New Zealand. It will be a pleasure. And if you allow me, since we are very close to Christmas, I would like to wish a Merry Christmas to everybody, a fantastic holiday season and I wish to see you all very, very soon.

Elizabeth Rudall: Thank you very much Nuno. Congratulations again.

Nuno Matos: Thank you Liz. It's a pleasure. 

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