Background: ANZ is one of Australia’s big four banks, founded in 1835 and employing around 42,000 people. In 2025, it brought in a new CEO, Nuno Matos, who wasted no time shaking things up. He cut 3,500 jobs, axed another 1,000 contractors, shut down the venture arm 1835i including CashRewards and shifted the bank to quarterly reporting.

What happened: Now, ANZ just reported a 6% rise in cash profit to $1.94 billion for the first quarter. And the big driver? Cost cutting. The job reductions under the new ANZ 2030 strategy significantly lowered operating expenses.

What else: While the morale within the ANZ walls may not be strong, investors liked what they saw. ANZ shares jumped more than 8% in early trading, signalling strong market approval for the CEO’s early clean-up phase.

What's the key learning?

💡When growth is hard to find, companies often turn to cost control. ANZ’s profit lift was driven by lower expenses rather than a surge in lending or margins.

💡While cost cutting is within management’s control, revenue growth is not. The good news for ANZ is that its cost-to-income ratio fell below 50%, down from over 65%. But now comes the challenge - growing revenue.

💡Growing revenue depends on winning customers and growing market share. So while te clean-up phase looks successful, growth is tougher.