ANZ Banking Group is setting up a group-wide data and analytics function and appointing a new C-level executive to run it.
The function is being set up under an “organisational change” aimed at improving the bank’s operational performance.
The main change is a new group-wide operations function, to be led by a new group executive of operations that is expected to be appointed “in the coming months”.
But the announcement of the new data and analytics function and executive is also part of the same “organisational change”.
The data and analytics function will be “led by a new chief data and analytics officer”, who will report to the bank’s group executive of technology, Gerard Florian.
It’s understood that recruitment for the chief data and analytics officer (CDAO) will now commence.
The bank is hoping to have its CDAO in place by around March 2025.
“The team will be responsible for data strategy and architecture along with shaping the use of artificial intelligence within the group,” ANZ said in a statement.
ANZ last had a chief data officer in 2022, when Emma Gray – who was also the first person to hold the title – left.
Responsibility for data then shifted to chief risk officer data and technology Michelle Pinheiro, and it will now be broken out into its own function.
ANZ has embraced AI, particularly generative AI, in a big way, in software development and other internal domains.
It most recently announced an AI “immersion” centre through which 3000 leaders from across the bank will receive training in AI technologies over the next 12 months.