October 26th 2012 - ANZ today announced the merging of its Asia and Pacific business under the remit of current CEO Asia Gilles Planté who will become ANZ CEO Asia Pacific.

Mr Planté, who was recently given overall accountability for ANZ’s retail franchise in Asia and the Pacific, will remain based in Hong Kong, reporting to Alex Thursby, CEO International & Institutional Banking.

In addition, Vishnu Mohan will be appointed as CEO Pacific reporting to Mr Planté. Based in Fiji, Mr Mohan is currently CEO Fiji and will retain in-country responsibility for Fiji as part of his expanded remit. Mr Mohan replaces CEO Pacific Michael Rowland, who has taken a new ANZ role as General Manager, Transformation, Customer Experience and Business Productivity.

Commenting on the appointments, Mr Thursby said: “We have previously increased our focus on in-country execution, cross-business and geographical connectivity by including Retail Banking Asia Pacific in Gilles’ remit as CEO Asia. Bringing the Asia and Pacific regions together under his leadership, in the new role of CEO Asia Pacific, is to further increase this focus.”

Mr Planté brings over 23 years experience in international banking, 15 years of which has been with ANZ. In addition to his current role, Mr Planté is also Chairman of ANZ China and a director of AMMB Holdings Berhad in which ANZ holds a 24% strategic investment.

Mr Mohan joined ANZ in 2007 and was previously CEO Papua New Guinea and the Pacific North West region. Prior to this, he was an adviser with ANZ’s partnership bank AmBank in Malaysia and spent over 30 years with Standard Chartered Bank in senior executive roles covering the Middle East, North America, Africa, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Singapore.

Mr Planté and Mr Mohan’s new roles are effective 1 November 2012.

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker