Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, ANZ, has announced that John Morschel will take over from Charles Goode as group chairman in February next year.

The announcement follows the decision by Sir Rod Eddington that he will withdraw his offer to take over the role as was originally announced in November 2008, ANZ said in a statement.

Mr Morschel is currently a non-executive director of Singapore Telecommunications and Tenix Pty. He was previously chairman of Rinker Group, Leighton Holdings, CSR and Comalco and a non-executive director of Rio Tinto. From 1993 until 2001, Mr Morschel was a director of Westpac Banking Corporation, including two years as executive director, where his responsibilities included retail banking and wealth management.