ANZ Banking Group is set to roll out new scam protections within its ANZ Plus platform, and has “quietly” introduced a new digital home loan platform as well.
Chief executive Shayne Elliott told the bank’s annual results briefing that “ANZ Plus will soon roll out cutting edge features branded ‘Scam Safe’ to provide even greater security for customers.”
The ‘Scam Safe’ for ANZ Plus capabilities is a suite of extra security controls, including permissions around use of data, to help detect fraud and scams and educate users on threats.
It will also offer customers controls around cryptocurrency exchange payments.
It’s expected the features will be rolled out progressively from mid-November 2024.
Elliott said the bank had recently written “to all customers in Australia to warn them of the dangers of scams and how to avoid them.”
He said that “with regards to security, we continue to invest keeping customers safer from criminals.”
“Each month we block up to 3 million malicious emails and 12 million attacks against our public facing web services,” he said.
“Recently, we ran a pilot using AI to identify and close suspected mule accounts linked to fraud, scams, money laundering and other financial crimes.”
Elliott said the bank had also introduced biometrics to identify payment anomalies; “removed about 1600 phishing or fraudulent websites impersonating ANZ”; and put in place measures to stop scammers impersonating ANZ in text messages.
Digital home loans
ANZ Plus has also launched a new automated home loan process for customers.
“Plus is the fastest growing most contemporary major bank offering for retail savers and last week we quietly launched the Plus home loan, dramatically reducing the time and cost of assessment, approval and settlement,” Elliott said.
The digital application has pre-populated data, includes automated credit decisioning on a new cloud platform, and self-service tools for customers to manage their loans.
Elliott said ANZ Plus continues to build “at pace” and is “now a fully-fledged business line within Australian retail.”
“Since launching a little over 18 months ago, Plus has welcomed over 500,000 customers and $10 billion in deposits,” he said.
“A little less than half of those currently joining is new to ANZ, higher than last year, with average balances increasing.
“Importantly, Plus operates at a marginal acquisition cost 40 percent lower than our classic business with variable servicing costs 20 percent lower and falling further as we grow.”
ANZ Worldline
The bank said ANZ Worldline Payment solution, the bank’s joint venture with European payments company Worldline, deployed a market merchant platform this past April.
It onboarded new customers and said the migration of users from existing ANZ platforms is underway.
In September, the bank also launched Apple’s ‘Tap to Pay on iPhone’ capabilities allowing merchants to accept in-person iPhone payments, eliminating the need for multiple devices.
ANZ said it also enabled payments through Alipay+ and WeChat, and allows Apple iPhone to receive contactless card payments through the Worldline Tap on Mobile app.
ANZ spend
ANZ reported its total operating expenses reached $10.1 billion for FY23, with $1.7 billion put towards technology.
This tech spend came in slightly higher than FY22 ($1.6 billion), from total expenses of $9.6 billion.
In FY23, ANZ said it put $200 million into “restructuring” expenses.
ANZ today announced an audited statutory profit after tax for the full year ended September 30 2023 of $7.098 billion, flat on the previous year.
Cash profit from continuing operations was $7.405 billion, up 14 percent when compared with the prior year.