Australia and New Zealand Bank is merging its Asia and Pacific businesses as the latest bout of restructuring at the lender.

Current Asia chief executive Gilles Planté will become Asia-Pacific CEO, while Vishnu Mohan, chief executive of Fiji, will be appointed as CEO for the Pacific, reporting to Planté, said a statement from ANZ.

Planté, who was recently given overall responsibility for ANZ’s retail franchise in Asia and the Pacific, will remain based in Hong Kong, reporting to Alex Thursby, CEO international and institutional banking.

Based in Fiji, Mohan is currently CEO for Fiji and will retain in-country responsibility for Fiji as part of his expanded remit. Mohan replaces the previous Pacific CEO Michael Rowland, who has taken a new ANZ role as general manager, transformation, customer experience and business productivity.

Thursby said: “We have previously increased our focus on in-country execution, cross-business and geographical connectivity by including retail banking Asia-Pacific in Gilles’s remit as CEO Asia. Bringing the Asia and Pacific regions together under his leadership, in the new role of CEO Asia-Pacific, is to further increase this focus.”

Planté brings more than 23 years of experience in international banking, 15 years of which have been with ANZ. In addition to his current role, Planté is also chairman of ANZ China and a director of AmBank, in which ANZ holds a 24 per cent strategic investment.

Mohan joined ANZ in 2007 and was previously CEO for Papua New Guinea and the Pacific northwest region. Prior to this, he was an adviser to AmBank in Malaysia and spent more than 30 years with Standard Chartered in senior executive roles covering the Middle East, North America, Africa, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Singapore.

Planté and Mohan’s new roles are effective 1 November 2012.

Since early this year ANZ has carried out a wide-ranging cost-cutting program and strategic shift, including 1,000 layoffs from its Australian business.