KEY POINTS:
Other banks could follow in reducing customer service staff after ANZ bank's call for voluntary redundancies, says a senior banking studies lecturer.
Dr David Tripe, of Massey University, said ANZ's announcement was not a surprise but the way it was handled was.
ANZ staff were asked at branch meetings throughout the country yesterday to consider voluntary redundancies.
"Either ANZ has been hit worse than everyone else, or that all the banks are being hit the same way and the ANZ have made a ham-fist of it and demonstrated to other banks what not to do," Dr Tripe said.
He said rumours were circulating for much of yesterday while the bank remained silent.
Dr Tripe said it was not a good move for ANZ which has only recently started to show an improvement in its ratings in customer service surveys.
"People will think: 'Oh, maybe my branch is going to close, maybe I should make an arrangement with another bank so that when my branch closes, I'll be all right'."
The call for voluntary redundancies has sparked fears that the bank could be sold off or amalgamated with the National Bank.
The ANZ's managing director of retail banking, Wayne Besant, said in a written statement that the number of over-the-counter transactions had dropped.
He said a review of the retail banking side of ANZ would be done.
Australian ANZ owns the ANZ and the National Bank in New Zealand.
In April, the bank said 400 positions would be moving to India but there would not be any redundancies.
Andrew Campbell, campaigns director for the union that represents ANZ staff, Finsec, said the bank has now gone back on its word that there would not be redundancies.
"Today's announcement shows that to be a lie," Mr Campbell said.
He said ANZ management also yesterday announced a recruitment freeze and cuts in overtime yesterday.
Mr Campbell said that since the merger of ANZ and National, there has been concern about whether both banks would continue to operate as separate entities.
