Returning from Hong Kong to Sydney after scooping up parts of Royal Bank of Scotland’s Asia network for $550m, Mike Smith, ANZ chief executive, wasted little time declaring that the Australian bank remained on the acquisition trail.

Buying RBS’s retail, wealth management and commercial businesses in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong, as well as the UK bank’s institutional banking businesses in Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam, was not a game changer for ANZ.