Improving financial wellbeing – at the core of our strategy
Financial wellbeing contributes significantly to overall health and wellbeing, community connectedness and economic and social participation.
Over many years we have invested in community programs, including Saver Plus and MoneyMinded, which have been proven to be an important part of the financial inclusion story for lower-income people. These programs have helped to build financial skills and resilience, develop active savings habits and improve overall financial wellbeing.
Links to 2019 Group Performance Framework
Regaining the trust of the community, government and other key stakeholders remains a major focus – our Reptrak community sentiment indicator improved over the 12 months to 58.8 but remains well below pre Royal Commission levels. We have retained high scores in a number of indices:
Corporate Confidence Index (CCI)1: Score above peer average
Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI)2: 2019 score of 82 (2018: 83). ANZ returned to global top ten (#10 overall)
Refer to the Remuneration Report section of the Annual Report available at anz.com/shareholder/centre for further details.
Our financial inclusion program partnerships change lives
Saver Plus – developed by Brotherhood of St Laurence and ANZ in 2003, program participants open an ANZ savings account, set a savings goal and save towards it regularly over 10 months while also attending MoneyMinded financial education sessions. On reaching their goal, savings are matched by ANZ dollar for dollar, up to $500, which must be spent on education.
Since 2003, Saver Plus has reached over 43,600 lower-income participants and is expected to enable over $33 million of private sector funds to be invested in education by 2020.
MoneyMinded – this program supports adults with low levels of financial literacy and those on lower incomes across
21 markets, including Australia and New Zealand. It is delivered by community partner organisations in Australia and New Zealand, and a mix of community organisations and ANZ employees in Asia and the Pacific.
MoneyBusiness – operating since 2005, MoneyBusiness is deigned to build the money management skills and confidence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. In that time it has reached over 79,500 participants and has been delivered in over 320 communities through either Australian Government-funded service providers or ANZ’s partners.
1. Corporate Confidence Index (CCI): Outcomes of the CCI are provided to ANZ on a confidential basis.
2. Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI): Evaluates the sustainability performance of thousands of companies trading publicly, operated under a strategic partnership between S&P Dow Jones Indices and RobecoSAM (Sustainable Asset Management).
Community investment
It is important that we are a part of the communities in which we operate, and we provide many opportunities for our people to get involved through our community programs – volunteering, funding and participating in community projects, or donating through workplace giving.
The strength of our relationships with partners in the not-for-profit sector is key to our ability to support the delivery of much needed services to the community. Many of our partners work in areas aligned to our priority areas of financial wellbeing, housing and environmental sustainability.
$142.2 million in community investment
Workplace giving
Our workplace giving program enables employees in Australia to make contributions to around 30 charity partners through regular pre-tax payroll deductions. This year we introduced ‘double matching’ – for every dollar donated by an employee (up to $5,000 per employee in a tax year) through the program, ANZ donates two dollars.
Our employees in New Zealand and Fiji can also donate through payroll to their respective staff foundations (charitable trusts that provide small grants) and ANZ double matches donations.
Volunteering
Our Volunteer Leave Policy, which applies to permanent, regular and fixed-term employees provides for at least one day of paid volunteer leave each year.
Supplementary disclosures
Refer to our 2019 ESG Supplement available at anz.com/cs in December for further disclosures, including historical data tables.
Public policy debate
We seek to contribute constructively to policy debate and understand the perspectives of our community’s elected representatives,
policy makers and regulators. We contribute to debate on business, economic, social and environmental issues affecting our customers and shareholders.
We work in a collaborative and open way as members of associations that have similar interests and approaches to ours.
In 2019 our key membership payments were:
Australian Banking Association: $4,045,653
Business Council of Australia: $93,500
New Zealand Bankers’ Association (NZD): $294,979
Business New Zealand (NZD): $40,250
Payment to the Australian Banking Association includes our annual fee as well as expenditure related to communications activity, contribution to the establishment of a not-for-profit Debt Repayment Service, industry initiatives in response to the Royal Commission’s work, and industry reform activity such as the new Banking Code of Practice.
Public policy advocacy
We understand that some of our stakeholders are particularly interested in positions we hold on issues such as data security, privacy and climate change and our membership of industry associations that undertake advocacy on these issues.
It is not the role of any association to represent solely ANZ’s,
nor any other single member’s view. It is also not possible for industry associations to obtain a consensus on every issue. There is sometimes disagreement amongst members about the final positions taken by industry associations and even if we do not agree with it, we will participate in discussions. From time to time, we may take positions on certain matters not supported by the relevant industry association. For example, ANZ was the first major bank to support a ‘last resort’ compensation scheme for victims of misconduct. Such a scheme is now public policy.
We place high importance on the ability to hold constructive dialogue within an association’s membership and we expect industry associations to be receptive to member feedback regarding their lobbying or advocacy approaches.
1. Figure includes forgone revenue of $109 million, being the cost of providing low or fee free accounts to a range of customers such as government benefit recipients, not for profit organisations and students.
