Originally published by David Ross of The Australian.
10.06.2026
Australia’s regulatory regime has crimped the nation’s growth, ANZ chief Nuno Matos says, with the boss of the big four bank warning that without an “entrepreneurship approach” growth will be anemic.
The Portuguese banker, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Australia Summit, said in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis Australia had retreated to a risk-averse posture.
He said Australia should have grown significantly over the last 20 years, as it had in the 20 years prior to the GFC. But Mr Matos said this had not happened.
“I think the country, in my opinion, needs to reflect on that (and) needs to probably adopt a more entrepreneurship approach,” he said.
Mr Matos said Australia had decided to be “on the safe side” but warned this had its cost.
“My point is, there are a lot of opportunities for Australia to grow much faster. I always say it’s about being conscious of decisions.”
Mr Matos singled out data centres as a key area to grow, noting how Australia’s stability made it a great location to base them.
“(Stability), that is one of the greatest assets,” he said. But Mr Matos said Australia had to offer up the energy and speed of approvals needed to make the projects happen.
Speaking as he entered his second year at the top of ANZ, Mr Matos said he was preparing for a slowdown in his bank’s home lending offerings to investors in the wake of the Albanese government’s tax changes to negative gearing and capital gains. He said these policy changes were by design aimed at slowing investor lending.
But he said it was unclear how far investor lending could retreat. “God knows if I knew I would be doing something different. It will go down,” he said.
Mr Matos said he was instead focused on trying to improve ANZ’s operations and offerings where he could. Among these is a shake-up of its retail bank, as well as an expansion of its business banking offerings.
He said he was also aiming to cut a “good news culture” out of ANZ, warning this had resulted in bad news not coming to the fore. Mr Matos also said that he expects AI to result in massive change to the business landscape, cautioning we were only at the “beginning of the beginning”.
