Arriving in May to revitalize the group, Nuno Matos, a defector from HSBC where he was long tipped to succeed Noel Quinn—before losing the race to Georges Elhedery—is not currently mincing words or beating about the bush.

His drastic cuts have earned him the fierce enmity of the unions, but they were made all the more necessary by the integration of Suncorp, the country's fifth-largest bank, which was acquired last year by ANZ for A$5bn.

Matos and the board of directors also have their work cut out for them to restore the reputation of an institution whose image has been seriously tarnished by a long series of scandals, including, amongst others, bond market manipulation fraud.

In its domestic market, ANZ has lost ground to its main rival, Commonwealth Bank. The latter, along with Westpac and National Australia Bank, have further increased their exposure to the residential real estate sector, while ANZ, on the contrary, has sought to further diversify its business portfolio.

Although rational in theory, this strategy has not yet paid off in practice. A contraction in the Australian real estate market—still in a blatant bubble—could of course change the situation. However, this would not spare ANZ, which remains exposed to residential mortgages (40% of its risk asset portfolio).

Between 2012 and 2022, the "accommodative" monetary policy of low interest rates has largely deprived the group of growth, while at the same time causing a slow erosion of its profitability. In this context, it is noteworthy that ANZ has managed to control its costs and thus ensure the stability of its dividend.

This relatively strong performance – along with hopes for its international franchise, which has recovered perfectly well since the sale of its retail banking activities to DBS in 2016 – has enabled it to defend an average valuation of 1.2x its equity – while European banks languished in negative territory – and a dividend yield of between 5% and 6%.

However, since 2022, the rise in interest rates has only had a limited positive impact on net interest margin because, unlike European banks, it had to be immediately passed on to deposit rates in order to avoid losing market share. As a result, profits have not increased as much as hoped.

On a positive note, the H1 2025 results show a return to double-digit return on equity. The slight growth in revenues is entirely linked to the acquisition of Suncorp, in a context of net interest margins once again under pressure following the easing of monetary policy decided by the Australian central bank.

MarketScreener also draws investors' attention to ANZ's provision levels and non-performing loan rates, which are at historically low levels. It is unclear whether this windfall would withstand a slowdown in the national economy, even though, it must be said, the latter continues to show admirable resilience at this stage.