The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price is sliding on Thursday amid the bank's annual general meeting (AGM) and a shareholder vote on a major structural change.
Right now, the ANZ share price is 0.23% lower at $23.955.
For comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is down 0.53% at the time of writing. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 Financials Index (ASX: XFJ) has slumped 0.25%.
So, what's happening with the smallest of the big four banks today? Let's take a look.
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ANZ share price slips amid 'milestone day'
The ANZ share price is in the red this afternoon. Its struggles follow the bank's AGM and a shareholder vote on a structural change. ANZ chair Paul O'Sullivan commented on the change first flagged earlier this year, saying:
This is a milestone day as we prepare the bank for the future.
The vote relates to a restructure that seeks to establish a new non-operating holding company to be the listed parent of the banking group. Such a change will allow ANZ's banking business to be separated from some of its non-banking businesses.
It will not impact shareholders' dividends or the bank's financial position. O'Sullivan explains:
[T]raditional banking is facing significant disruption from new non-bank competitors, mainly global technology companies launching financial services products.
Understandably, these businesses are not regulated in the same way as banks like ANZ.
Essentially, the restructure is about making our banking business more efficient by creating a better structure for investing in our non-bank partners.
If approved by shareholders, the restructure will be put before the Federal Court of Australia.
If successful there, the change will see ANZ operating in a way similar to financial names such as Suncorp Group Ltd (ASX: SUN) and Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG).
It's also expected that we'll see ANZ shares suspend trade on 20 December, returning on 4 January under the new structure.
What else happened at the AGM?
ANZ's leaders also discussed the operating environment the bank finds itself in at today's AGM. O'Sullivan commented:
After almost three years of living with COVID, the operating environment remains highly uncertain stemming from rapidly rising inflation, geopolitical tensions – most notably the War in Ukraine – and the impact of rapidly tightening monetary policy across the globe.
While most Aussie households are in good financial shape, the chair acknowledged rising cost of living pressures are straining some. "The next six months will be testing for many," O'Sullivan said.
The bank will therefore keep its hardship resources – implemented during the pandemic – in place for those who need them.
ANZ also provided an update on its ANZ Plus platform. Deposits on the platform are growing faster than any new bank ever launched in Australia, ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott told the meeting:
Today, we have more than 113,000 customers – around a third of which are new to the bank – and over $2.3 billion in deposits.
To put this into better perspective, those numbers have more than doubled since we announced our result at the end of October.
The platform also launched a staff pilot for the bank's new digital home loan this month. It's expected to be introduced to all customers next year. Elliott said:
To be clear, this will not be a fancy digital frontend but paper-based backend like many in the market offer today, but a fully digital end-to-end experience from application all the way through to settlement.
