The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. It is Australia's second-largest bank by assets and fourth-largest bank by market capitalisation. Its current corporate entity was established on 1 October 1970, when the Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ) merged with the English, Scottish & Australian Bank (ES&A). It was the largest bank merger in Australian history at the time. The Australia and New Zealand Bank had in turn been founded in 1951 as a merger of the Bank of Australasia and the Union Bank of Australia, which were established in 1835 and 1837 respectively. ANZ is one of the Big Four Australian banks, along with the Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac. Australian operations make up the largest part of ANZ's business, with commercial and retail banking dominating. ANZ is also the largest bank in New Zealand, where the legal entity became known as ANZ National Bank in 2003 and changed to ANZ Bank New Zealand in 2012. From 2003 to 2012, it operated two brands in New Zealand, ANZ and the National Bank of New Zealand. The National Bank brand was retired in 2012, with a number of branches closing and others converting to ANZ branches. In addition to operations throughout Australia and New Zealand, ANZ also operates in 34 other countries. ANZ together with its subsidiaries has a workforce of 51,000 employees and serves around nine million customers worldwide.
