ANZ Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) is increasing its share buy-back by $1.5 billion to $3 billion.
According to a public filing, ANZ started its share buy-back on 15 January 2018. It decided to increase its buy-back now that it has received $1 billion of reinsurance proceeds as part of the first stage of the sale of its Australian life insurance business.
ANZ bank said that its CET1 ratio (which is how much capital it has in reserve for an economic downturn) was 11.04%. This would increase by around 0.56% on a pro-forma basis after it has finished the buy-back and other capital programs.
This could be good news for ANZ shareholders after the bank was recently accused of cartel conduct and the entire sector has been under siege due to the Royal Commission into the financial services industry.
ANZ’s Chief Financial Officer, Michelle Jablko, said: “The progress our transformation means we are able to return this surplus capital to shareholders while retaining appropriate flexibility to invest in our business and maintain unquestionably strong capital levels.”
The ANZ share price has risen by 2.5% in early trade according to Google Finance.
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