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(SINGAPORE) Unfazed by keen competition in the local banking scene, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is aiming for 'high growth' in its newly acquired units and will look to hire in the medium to long term.
'Growth in institutional and private banking combined in the last two years has been approximately 50 per cent per year,' said ANZ Asia-Pacific, Europe and America CEO Alex Thursby of the group's businesses in Singapore.
'We'd expect in a couple of years to be at that sort of run rate in the commercial and affluent retail' businesses.
For US$550 million, ANZ bought Royal Bank of Scotland's retail, wealth and commercial arms in Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia and Hong Kong. It also took over RBS's institutional units in Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Mr Thursby was in Hong Kong on Tuesday when the deal was announced, and spoke to the press in Singapore yesterday before flying off to Taiwan and Indonesia.
ANZ will focus on serving affluent and emerging affluent clients in Singapore - typically those with $100,000 and more, Mr Thursby said.
It is looking to become their 'core' bank, by offering a variety of products which can range from offshore mortgage loans to endowments.
ANZ will not go into the mass market where local banks such as POSB dominate, he underlined. Car loans therefore, are unlikely to show up in its product range.
ANZ is applying for a retail licence and is seeking the Monetary Authority of Singapore's approval. It will re-brand the acquired RBS units thereafter.
In the meantime, it has set up integration teams to implement customer retention and staff engagement plans.
ANZ will also offer a 'regional value proposition', Mr Thursby added. Customers, for instance, will be able to access services across several Asian markets and Australia.
'We do see ourselves growing quicker than most incumbent competitors,' Mr Thursby said.
To support these ambitions, ANZ will be hiring broadly in the medium to long term - from traders, commercial bankers, relationship managers to product designers.
It now has around 600 employees in Singapore, and will gain another 660 from RBS.
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