ANZ Banking Group will abandon its target for earnings in Asia, part of its new CEO Shayne Elliott's strategy to reduce the bank's presence in the region, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Elliott said looking back, the bank should have predicted that some Asian nations would become more hostile to foreign banks after the 2008 financial crisis.
"In hindsight we should have done it differently," he said in an interview with BOSS Magazine. "But that's life."
Elliott said his focus in the region would be to achieve the best profit possible within their network rather than being fixed on a particular target.
"Earnings from Asia may be 35 per cent or 15 per cent – I don't care, so long as the objective is driving value," he said.
