Yesterday 248 staff were given marching orders in nearly every major city, bar Melbourne, as the bank consolidated its "mortgage fulfilment centres".
These staff do the work whenever someone is approved for a mortgage with ANZ. They collect documents, process deeds and ensure settlement occurs on the due date for what is usually the biggest and most emotional purchase a bank customer will make.
For the growing chorus of disgruntled executives at ANZ — the people who blew the lid on the latest cuts and forced the bank into an early media announcement — this decision is symptomatic of the culture that arrived with Smith. It's a culture, they say, that puts the core Australian business and customers in the back seat.
ANZ's chief media flack, Paul Edwards, was on leave for the announcement, which the bank didn't expect to leak to the media. Given the size of previous cuts — 800 middle-management jobs in December, and confirmation in March that 500 jobs had been outsourced to India — the latest figure of 248 staff gone was also deemed to be small.
ANZ staff tell Full Disclosure they have been instructed not to talk to the media, but the latest cuts have loosened some lips. "They keep telling us that no customer-facing jobs will go, that the majority of job losses will be backroom staff," said one. "I can understand moving jobs to Bangalore if there is a better outcome for customers, or at least no effect on the outcome, but how can processing a mortgage overseas, in a different time zone, be a better outcome?
"Different states have different laws. A mortgage is the most emotional purchase our customers ever make. Now, if there is a query from a person in Sydney, they will see their bank manager, who will talk to someone in Melbourne, who will deal with someone in Bangalore. Second, third, even fourth parties will be involved in the process."
The decision to centralise mortgage services was taken after an internal review. A high-level source at the bank said the review decided to outsource much of the work to Bangalore and specialists such as Iron Mountain purely on the basis of cost, not customer service.
There's no doubt the cuts have been deep at ANZ. Last month the bank announced a $10 million package negotiated with the Financial Services Union to retrain staff affected by job cuts, called the New Career Training Fund.
The media release issued by Edwards for that included a "note for editors" stating that "since 2003, employment at ANZ in Australia has risen by over 3500 full-time roles from 16,400 to 19,922 full-time staff as at the end of March 2009".
It was clever spin, befitting Yes Minister or The Hollowmen. Another way of putting it is, since September last year, the number of full-time jobs at ANZ has been cut from 20,364 to fewer than 19,700 and is the lowest level since 2003, with more cuts to come.
Since 2003, the number of people employed in Bangalore has risen from fewer than 500 to more than 3500.
Even at head office, institutional bankers complain about the cutbacks.
"An assistant manager leaves, a graduate steps in, and the position is filled," Full Disclosure was told. "It happens all over the bank and, while some of the kids might be good, they are just not ready for the responsibilities they are being given."
Rod Masson, director of policy for the FSU, says the workload given to inexperienced employees is major complaint from ANZ staff. "It's called 'survivor syndrome'," Masson says. "It's not just people complaining about doing more work. There's just as much concern about the impact job cuts have had on customers."
Next on the list for outsourcing, according to sources at ANZ, is the Private Bank, located in the famous old neo-gothic building on the corner of Collins and Queen streets. It services the bank's cherished high-net-worth customers. Again, no "customer-facing roles", as the bank likes to put it, will be cut.
"It's behind-the-scenes roles that will be sent to India," Full Disclosure was told — by the same sources that informed us of the latest job cuts. "Management is desperate for customers not to know, to be under the impression that nothing has changed, but it's all changing."
Even some of ANZ's more charitable programs are facing cuts. Its Given the Chance program was a partnership with the Brotherhood of St Laurence to give refugees a chance to launch a career. Last year four were given jobs — all with the mortgage services business that has now been axed.
"It's more than symbolic," said one senior banker. "If they want a career with ANZ, they're in the wrong country."
FULL DISCLOSURE / MARK HAWTHORNE | The Age
July 9, 2009
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