Ex-HSBC Banker Nuno Matos Brings 'Clean Slate' to ANZ as CEO

(Bloomberg) -- ANZ Group Holdings Ltd.’s new chief executive officer will face a long list of challenges when he takes up his role at Australia’s second-largest lender by assets next July.

Most Read from Bloomberg

A Chicago Skyscraper Cements the Legacy of a Visionary Postmodern Architect

NYC’s Run-Down Bus Terminal Gets Approval for $10 Billion Revamp

Kansas City Looks Back on its Long, Costly Ride With Microtransit

Nuno Matos, the former HSBC Holdings Plc wealth chief who was named on Monday to replace Shayne Elliott, will need to appease regulator probes, integrate the company’s biggest acquisition on record, and eke out profit from an increasingly commoditized lending market.

But first up for the Portuguese native will be getting used to the banking landscape in Australia and New Zealand, according to UBS Group AG analysts.

Matos will bring “a fresh perspective and a clean slate” to ANZ, UBS’s John Storey and Sarah Cornwell wrote in a note. He will “make the necessary changes to the group’s operating model, drive an improved stakeholder outcome and introduce new ideas.”

More than 120 of ANZ’s most senior bankers in Melbourne may get a glimpse of those ideas when they meet with Matos, 57, later Monday. As someone whose career has spanned roles around the world at Spain’s Banco Santander SA as well as HSBC — he signaled a willingness to persist with ANZ’s mix of both international and domestic banking.

“I feel it fits well with my profile,” Matos told ANZ’s internal newsletter. “I certainly said to myself, ‘I would love to be part of this journey.’”

Matos was head of wealth and personal banking at HSBC but missed out on the top job earlier this year, leading to a departure after nine years that made him one of the world’s most eligible bankers. On his watch, the unit’s pretax profit more than tripled to $11.5 billion in 2023.

The past years also saw Matos at the heart of HSBC’s strategy to continue its pivot toward Asia, including working on several of the company’s bolt-on acquisitions of wealth and insurance businesses in the region.

His appointment by ANZ comes as two other top Australian lenders also recently named CEOs, with Andrew Irvine taking the helm at National Australia Bank Ltd. and Anthony Miller at Westpac Banking Corp.

Shares of ANZ fell 3.1% as of 2:32 p.m. in Sydney, paring this year’s gain to 16%. That’s less than the 32% advance of the S&P/ASX 200 Financials sector gauge.

News of an orderly CEO transition addresses one source of uncertainty for ANZ, according to Morgan Stanley analysts, led by Richard Wiles. Matos should focus on non-financial risk issues and manage any potential changes in the executive team, he wrote in a report.