In broad terms, mystery has surrounded the bank's overarching technology operation since the appointment of its new chief information officer Anne Weatherston in November 2009. Since that time '” and unlike the executive's compatriots at rival banks Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Weatherston has remained unavailable to discuss the bank's technology plans.
The lack of discussion in the area '” shared by the National Australia Bank '” has led to pressure on the bank from the analyst community, in the wake of claims by the Commonwealth Bank that its billion-dollar core banking re-development project was putting it years in front of the other banks, courtesy of its real-time banking functionality.
Yesterday at the bank's half-yearly briefing session, the bank's chief executive Mike Smith singled out technology as a key area of concern for the bank going forward.
'As I said in December 2007, technology is one of the key enablers of our super regional strategy, and at our recent strategy update, I mentioned that we now have an agreed technology road map, not only to take us through 2017, but to position us for the next 20 years,' Smith said.
However, unlike rivals, Smith emphasised ANZ was aiming to be a super-regional bank, focused more on the broader Asia-Pacific region, with the bank's technology strategy to follow suit.
