ANZ Banking Group has a new tech strategy

ANZ Banking Group CIO Donald Patra has marked his first six months in the role with a nine-point “roadmap” for technology that is aligned to the broader ANZ 2030 strategy.

ANZ CIO Donald Patra.

Patra - who started at the bank in late November last year - appeared in a brief video and article on ANZ’s Bluenotes publication.

The tone and message was clear: that after six months spent observing ANZ’s technology operations, its customer landscape and “pain points”, and understanding the bank’s culture, Patra has seen enough.

“The reason that you need to understand ‘the lay of the land’ is because that will determine your ambitions,” he said.

By understanding the bank’s capabilities and its challenges in taking experiences “to the next level”, he is now able to provide “clarity” to the organisation on the path forward.

“The [ANZ] 2030 strategy is one aspect. The technology strategy that we build on top of the 2030 strategy is starting to come out and people see that line of sight and getting that tight in terms of where we are heading,” he said.

In notes accompanying the video, ANZ indicated that “group technology is shifting to delivering an ambitious nine‑priority roadmap to modernise systems, strengthen resilience and enable better customer outcomes.”

It’s understood these nine priorities include pursuing a simplified architecture, data and AI enablement, technology operations resilience, delivery and engineering excellence, a non-financial risk and controls uplift, and cyber maturity.

Other priorities are more culturally aligned, such as adopting an internal mindset of ‘one organisation, one team’ and a ‘performance culture’, and maintaining a focus on aiding the delivery of key business programs.