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MELBOURNE - ANZ Banking Group has appointed Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp's head of Asia, Michael Smith, to succeed John McFarlane as chief executive.
Smith, 50, also chairs Hang Seng Bank and HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad, and is the global head of commercial banking for the HSBC group.
Smith would start as chief executive at ANZ and join the board on October 1, ANZ chairman Charles Goode said yesterday.
McFarlane will leave the ANZ on September 30, after 10 years in the top job.
As CEO of ANZ, Smith will receive a fixed annual salary of A$3 million ($3.36 million).
He will also be eligible for as much as A$3 million a year in short-term incentive payments and A$3 million a year in long-term incentive payments (to be paid at the end of Smith's third, fourth and fifth years).
Smith will also receive a sign-on fee of A$9 million to be paid in A$3 million tranches on the first, second and third anniversaries of the start of his employment.
The tranches may be paid in cash or shares or a combination of both.
The fee is to be paid as compensation for remuneration foregone by Smith as a result of joining ANZ.
Smith's appointment comes after an extensive worldwide search by ANZ for a new chief executive.
Goode described Smith as "an outstanding all-round banker".
"In his 29 years with the HSBC Group, he has developed an impressive track record across multiple businesses and geographies, with extensive experience in retail and corporate banking," Goode said. "He brings to ANZ considerable experience of the Asian marketplace and a strong commercial banking background."
In 1999 in Buenos Aires, Smith's car was riddled by bullets in an ambush, though he managed to smash his blood-spattered sedan through his assailants' vehicles and outrun them in a subsequent chase, Time magazine reported last year. Two years later, he and 1000 other HSBC employees were trapped in their offices as protesters tried to burn down the building during one of Argentina's economic crises, the magazine said.
Smith said he had lived and worked in Australia for five years and that two of his three children were born in Melbourne.
At the release of ANZ's half-year results in April, McFarlane said its acquisition priorities lay in Asia because opportunities were limited in Australia. The ANZ wanted to consolidate its position in New Zealand and was underweight in many segments in Australia.
-AAP, BLOOMBERG
