ANZ Group Holdings Limited (ASX: ANZ) is back in the spotlight on 17 December 2025 as investors weigh a busy mix of company updates, banking-sector regulation in New Zealand, and an ongoing governance overhang tied to executive remuneration and misconduct fallout.
ANZ shares were around A$36.08 in late trade on 17 December, with the day’s range roughly A$35.88 to A$36.34 (prices delayed). [1]
ANZ share price snapshot: where ASX:ANZ stands on 17 December 2025
As of late afternoon on 17 December, ANZ’s indicative market data showed:
- Share price: ~A$36.08
- Market cap: ~A$107.7 billion
- Day high/low:A$36.34 / A$35.88
- 52-week context: ANZ remains below its reported 52‑week high (around A$38.85) and well above its 52‑week low (around A$26.51) [2]
This puts ANZ in a “not cheap, not euphoric” zone: the stock has rebounded sharply from early‑2025 lows, but recent headlines are keeping risk discussions lively.
Today’s ANZ headline: Bank@Post launch adds 3,300+ in-person banking points
The most direct ANZ-specific news item dated 17 December 2025 is ANZ’s launch of Bank@Post in partnership with Australia Post.
ANZ says the service gives customers access to banking services at over 3,300 participating Post Offices nationwide, with an emphasis on improving face‑to‑face access in regional and remote locations. [3]
What customers can do via Bank@Post (per ANZ):
- Cash deposits: up to A$8,000 per transaction
- Cash withdrawals: up to A$2,000 per transaction (subject to daily limits)
- Balance checks [4]
From a stock perspective, a Bank@Post rollout isn’t typically an immediate earnings catalyst. But it does matter strategically: it can reduce friction for cash-handling customers, strengthen “access” credentials at a time when bank branch footprints are politically sensitive, and potentially support deposit relationships in areas where “banking presence” is part reputation, part customer retention.
ANZ also flags holiday spending tailwinds: $5.1b “shutdown period” boost forecast
In a separate 17 December 2025 release, ANZ forecast that customers would inject A$5.1 billion into the economy during the holiday “shutdown period” (ANZ defined as 21 December 2025 to 5 January 2026), representing a 4.7% increase on the same period last year. [5]
ANZ highlighted categories like food and beverages, travel and leisure, digital goods, and precious stones/metals as major contributors, and cited prior customer data showing strong year‑on‑year growth in digital goods and “precious items.” [6]
For ANZ stock watchers, this sort of data is less about transaction-fee windfalls (banks don’t suddenly become retailers) and more about what it implies:
- the resilience (or fragility) of household demand,
- the health of small business turnover going into early 2026,
- and downstream credit quality (spending strength can be good—unless it’s debt-fuelled and fragile).
New Zealand catalyst: RBNZ eases capital rules — why ANZ investors care
A big macro-regulatory development impacting ANZ’s regional footprint is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) decision to lower some capital requirements after reviewing rules introduced in 2019.
Key points reported:
- The top four Australian-owned banks in New Zealand will need CET1 (Common Equity Tier 1) capital of 12%, down from 16% (under the prior path), while
- Tier 2 requirements rise to 3% from 2%, and
- banks will be required to hold internal loss absorbing capacity of 6%. [7]
RBNZ also estimated the changes could reduce average funding costs by about 12 basis points, with an expected annual net benefit of 0.12% of GDP for New Zealand compared with full implementation of the old rules. [8]
Why this can matter for ANZ stock: capital rules affect how much high-quality equity banks must hold against loans. Lower required equity (all else equal) can free balance sheet capacity, reduce funding costs, and change the “capital intensity” of New Zealand banking profits. But it’s not a one-way win: the RBNZ is also tightening other loss-absorbing requirements and keeping settings conservative by international standards. [9]
New Zealand pricing backdrop: ANZ lifts some fixed home loan rates
Adding colour to the New Zealand environment, RNZ reported that ANZ increased several fixed mortgage rates in mid‑December, citing rising wholesale interest rates. ANZ said wholesale rates for 12 months and longer had risen 33 to 77 basis points since its last fixed-rate reduction in October. [10]
For investors, this matters because it signals:
- the direction of competitive pricing (and therefore potential margin pressure or support),
- and how quickly wholesale market moves feed through into customer rates. [11]
Governance and legal overhang: former CEO bonus lawsuit keeps attention on “non‑financial risk”
ANZ’s “non-financial risk” story—misconduct, compliance and accountability—remains a headline factor for the stock, and it resurfaced this month via a legal dispute involving former CEO Shayne Elliott.
Reuters reported that Elliott filed legal action claiming ANZ breached a departure agreement by cutting A$13.5 million in bonuses, after the board moved to eliminate executive bonuses following the bank’s civil penalty outcome. [12]
This lawsuit sits on top of the broader regulatory episode: ASIC announced in September 2025 that ANZ admitted misconduct and that ASIC and ANZ would ask the Federal Court to impose A$240 million in penalties spanning multiple proceedings—covering conduct tied to government bond trading/reporting as well as retail issues including hardship handling, interest-rate representations, and deceased estates. [13]
Investors tend to translate this kind of governance risk into three practical questions:
- Will the remediation and compliance uplift cost more than expected?
- Does the bank face further penalties or constraints?
- Does reputational damage change customer behaviour or regulatory scrutiny?
Even when the dollars are quantifiable, the “trust discount” is hard to model—and markets hate hard-to-model things.
Latest ANZ earnings picture: FY2025 profit, capital and strategy reset
The most recent major financial anchor for ANZ shares remains the bank’s FY2025 full-year result (for the year ended 30 September 2025, released 10 November 2025).
ANZ reported:
- Statutory profit:A$5.891 billion (down 10% year-on-year)
- Cash profit:A$5.787 billion
- CET1 ratio:12.0% (APRA Level 2) [14]
ANZ also pointed to significant items totaling A$1.109 billion (including an ASIC settlement and restructuring charges). Excluding those items, ANZ said cash profit was A$6.896 billion, flat year‑on‑year. [15]
On capital management, ANZ flagged that it had ceased the remaining ~A$800 million of its on‑market share buy‑back and would return surplus capital of about ~A$1 billion from its non-operating holding company to the bank; it cited a pro forma CET1 ratio of 12.26% inclusive of that capital. [16]
These numbers matter because ANZ is, structurally, a bank stock where total return is often a blend of:
- modest earnings growth,
- dividends (plus franking considerations),
- and capital actions when surplus capital is available.
ANZ dividend watch: final dividend hits 19 December 2025
Dividend timing is unusually relevant right now because ANZ’s 2025 final dividend is due within days.
ANZ’s shareholder information states it proposes to pay a 2025 final dividend of 83 cents per share, partially franked at 70%, on 19 December 2025, with a 1.5% discount applied to the Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP) and Bonus Option Plan (BOP). [17]
Key dates (per ANZ):
- Ex-dividend date: 13 November 2025
- Record date: 14 November 2025
- Payment date: 19 December 2025 [18]
For investors assessing ANZ stock on 17 December, this is less about “will I get the dividend?” (the ex-date has passed) and more about:
- cashflow timing,
- reinvestment pricing mechanics,
- and how dividend sustainability looks under the current capital and regulatory backdrop.
Analyst forecasts for ANZ shares: price targets cluster around the current price
Analyst consensus often moves slower than headlines, but it shapes how investors frame “upside vs. risk.”
Investing.com’s consensus snapshot for ANZ showed:
- Average 12‑month price target: about A$35.24
- Range:A$30 to A$40.40
- Consensus view: “Neutral,” with counts indicating a split between buy/hold/sell (14 analysts in the snapshot). [19]
The interesting detail here is how tight the average target is to the prevailing share price level around A$36. In plain English: the market and the analyst community are, roughly, saying ANZ is closer to “fairly priced” than “obviously mispriced,” which makes dividends, risk control, and execution (cost discipline, simplification, compliance) more important in the near term.
The macro chessboard: interest rates, funding costs, and the “bank margin tug-of-war”
Bank stocks are basically macro sponges: they soak up rate expectations, credit-cycle anxiety, and funding spreads.
In Australia, ABC’s market coverage noted major bank economics teams were revising their Reserve Bank of Australia rate expectations, with Westpac shifting to an “on hold through 2026” view, and commentary that CBA and NAB were expecting a February hike amid concerns about inflation in a capacity‑constrained economy. [20]
Even if you ignore the forecasting “horse race,” the takeaway for ANZ stock is straightforward:
- Higher rates can help margins (up to a point),
- but can also pressure borrowers and lift credit losses,
- while deposit competition can erode the benefit by raising funding costs.
Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the RBNZ’s capital changes and ANZ’s mortgage repricing signal a banking environment where funding and regulatory settings are shifting at the same time—a mix that can produce both opportunity (lower capital intensity) and volatility (repricing cycles, political scrutiny, competition). [21]
What to watch next for ANZ stock
With the 17 December newsflow in mind, the next “practical catalysts” for ANZ shares tend to fall into five buckets:
- Dividend payment mechanics (19 Dec) and reinvestment participation
Watch DRP/BOP participation and how the reinvestment pricing interacts with the stock’s short-term trading range. [22] - Regulatory follow‑through and remediation costs
ASIC’s case details and ongoing court processes can influence sentiment even when the headline penalty amount is known. [23] - New Zealand capital implementation details
RBNZ said more details would follow later; implementation specifics matter as much as the headline ratios. [24] - Net interest margin and cost discipline execution
ANZ’s own FY2025 disclosures emphasised simplification and strategy execution; markets will look for tangible progress. [25] - Banking access strategy and customer footprint
The Bank@Post rollout is a reputational and retention play—worth tracking for operational rollout and customer adoption, even if it doesn’t immediately shift earnings. [26]
Bottom line
On 17 December 2025, ANZ stock sits at the intersection of capital and dividends, regulatory repair, and regional banking shifts—with fresh same-day company announcements (Bank@Post and spending forecasts) adding narrative momentum, while New Zealand’s capital-rule changes and ongoing governance headlines keep the risk lens firmly in focus. [27]
References
1. www.intelligentinvestor.com.au, 2. www.intelligentinvestor.com.au, 3. www.anz.com.au, 4. www.anz.com.au, 5. www.anz.com.au, 6. www.anz.com.au, 7. www.reuters.com, 8. www.reuters.com, 9. www.reuters.com, 10. www.rnz.co.nz, 11. www.rnz.co.nz, 12. www.reuters.com, 13. asic.gov.au, 14. www.anz.com, 15. www.anz.com, 16. www.anz.com, 17. www.anz.com, 18. www.anz.com, 19. www.investing.com, 20. www.abc.net.au, 21. www.reuters.com, 22. www.anz.com, 23. asic.gov.au, 24. www.reuters.com, 25. www.anz.com, 26. www.anz.com.au, 27. www.anz.com.au
