ANZ says it would strengthen its focus on running an institutional bank in Asia following an agreement to sell its retail and wealth business in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Indonesia to Singapore’s DBS Bank.

Commenting on the transaction from Hong Kong, ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott says: “Our strategic priority is to create a simpler, better capitalized, better balanced bank focussed on attractive areas where we can carve out winning positions.

“Asia remains core to ANZ’s strategy. This transaction simplifies our business while allowing us to continue to benefit from higher levels of growth in the region through a focus on our largest, most successful business in Asia - banking large corporate and institutional clients driven by trade and capital flows particularly with Australia and New Zealand.

“By focussing our resources in Asia – whether that is capital, technology or people – on institutional banking, we can continue to build a world-class, capital efficient business by strengthening our network and the support we provide to our key institutional clients.”

“Having looked carefully at the business in recent months, it is clear the environment we face has changed and to make a real difference for our retail and wealth customers, we would need to make further investments in our Asian branch network and digital capability. Further investments do not make sense for us given our competitive position and the returns available to ANZ,” Elliott says.

Elliott adds: “We believe DBS, with its extensive and growing network in the region, is ideally placed to provide an even better service for our 1.3 million retail and wealth customers in Asia.

Subject to regulatory approval, ANZ expects the sale of its retail and wealth businesses in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Indonesia to be completed during 2017 and early 2018.