ANZ will put its external audit out to competitive tender, and KPMG, the firm that has audited the bank since 1969, will not be allowed to take part. The bank told the ASX on Friday 2 October that a relationship of 57 years was no longer appropriate. The tender closes next April, and the firm that wins it will start with the 2028-29 financial year.
The move comes as KPMG Australia deals with the fallout from whistleblower allegations, aired in March, that it used confidential client documents to win audit work. KPMG has not been found liable over the allegations. The firm declined to comment on ANZ’s decision, AAP reported.
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What ANZ Told the Market
“The board of ANZ Group today announced it will commence a competitive tender process to select the next provider of ANZ Group external audit services,” the bank’s ASX statement read, ABC News reported.
On KPMG’s exclusion, the bank pointed to the length of the relationship. “A tenure of this length is no longer considered appropriate and has been under consideration by the board for some time,” ANZ said, according to AAP.
In a competitive tender, audit firms bid for the work and the board chooses between them. ANZ did not name the firms it expects to bid, and beyond the April close and the 2028-29 start, it gave no further detail of how the process will run.
The Money Involved
An external auditor checks a company’s financial statements independently and reports to shareholders on them. KPMG earned $21.4 million for auditing and reviewing ANZ’s accounts in 2024/25, AAP reported. Once non-audit services are added, meaning work done for the bank outside the audit itself, the figure was $29.6 million.
The announcement lands in a week of change for the sector, with the card surcharge ban taking effect on 1 October.
The Allegations Against KPMG
The allegations became public in March, when Labor senator Deborah O’Neill revealed a whistleblower’s claims that KPMG had used confidential documents from audit clients Lendlease and Optus to win audit work with Westpac, Dexus and Telstra, according to AAP. Westpac, like ANZ, is one of Australia’s four major banks. None of the allegations has been proven, and KPMG has not been found liable.
Since then, chief executive Andrew Yates and chairman Martin Sheppard both resigned. Macquarie Group and Lendlease ended their audit relationships with KPMG, and about 400 Australian staff were cut in August, AAP reported.
ANZ is the latest major client to part ways with the firm since March, though the only reason the bank has given publicly is the length of the tenure.
In June, KPMG’s interim chief executive, Stan Stavros, said: “Trust will only be rebuilt through sustained action and demonstrable change.”
Who Audits the Bank Next
ANZ has not said which firms it will invite to bid, only that KPMG cannot be one of them. Whoever wins the tender will audit the bank from the 2028-29 financial year, taking over a job KPMG has held since 1969. It will be the bank’s first change of external auditor in 57 years.
Sources: ABC News, “Major bank drops KPMG in wake of audit leaks scandal”, 2 October 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-02/asx-markets-business-news-live-updates/107136842); AAP, “Big bank dumps scandal-hit audit firm after 57 years”, 2 October 2026 (https://aapnews.aap.com.au/news/big-bank-dumps-scandal-hit-audit-firm-after-57-years)
Photo: Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
An ANZ branch in the Canberra Centre, photographed in March 2026. ANZ announced on 2 October 2026 that it will tender its external audit; this photograph is not from the announcement.
