ANZ has said that it is “exploring strategic options” for its online share trading platform, including potentially selling it. The bank said in a statement that it had issued an information memorandum “to a number of international and domestic specialist providers”.
“As we have seen with ANZ’s recent introduction of Apple Pay and Android Pay, the days of a bank needing to own every piece of technology are gone,” ANZ managing director, pensions and investments, Peter Mullin, said in a statement.
ANZ was the first bank to support Apple Pay. It was also the first major bank to announce support for Google’s Android Pay digital wallet.
Australia’s other three major banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and NAB, are currently seeking Australian Competition and Consumer Commission authorisation to engage in joint negotiations with, and potential limited boycotts of, digital wallet providers including Apple, Google and Samsung (whose Samsung Pay service was recently launched in Australia).
“We believe we can achieve better outcomes for our customers by partnering with a
specialist provider committed to the technology investment and product innovation needed to provide a world-class offering,” Mullin said.
In May ANZ renamed the trading platform from E*TRADE Australia to ANZ Share Investing. E*TRADE originally launched in 1998, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of ANZ in mid-2007. According to the bank it was the first online broker in Australia to introduce fully automated straight-through processing.
“This is an important change for us as it brings our online share trading platform into the ANZ fold,” Mullin said of the rebrand at the time.
The final decision on the future of ANZ Share Investing will take a number of months to finalise, the bank said.