public. ANZ serves around six million customers at over 570 branches in Australia. ANZ was the first bank in Australia to offer Apple Pay to its customers. Institutional banking ANZ is the largest institutional bank in Australia. It provides financial services to institutional and corporate customers in Australia and the Asia-Pacific. As of 2019, ANZ has around 7,000 institutional and corporate customers, with a total lending of A$165 billion. ANZ is committed to sustainable finance for institutional customers transitioning to a low-carbon economy. As of 2021, ANZ has concluded around A$22 billion worth of sustainable finance transactions. In June 2021, ANZ closed Australia's first sustainability-linked bond (SLB) in the domestic debt market. In August 2021, ANZ launched sustainability-linked derivatives (SLD) in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. Asia-Pacific ANZ is one of the leading Australian banks in the Asia-Pacific region. It has been aggressive in its expansion into the emerging markets of China, Vietnam and Indonesia. ANZ is also a leading bank in New Zealand as well as several Pacific Island Nations where it competes in many markets with fellow Australian bank Westpac. ANZ's arm in New Zealand is operated through a subsidiary company, ANZ National Bank, from 2003 to 2012, when it changed by ANZ Bank New Zealand upon merging the ANZ and National Bank brands. In March 2005, it formed a strategic alliance with Vietnam's Sacombank involving an acquisition of 10% of Sacombank's share capital. As part of the strategic alliance, ANZ will provide technical assistance in the areas of risk management and retail and small business banking. ANZ has followed a similar strategy in China, where it acquired a 20% share in Tianjin City Commercial Bank in July 2006. It also negotiated a similar deal with Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank. In August 2009, ANZ purchased RBS's retail units in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong, as well as RBS'si banking businesses in Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam. It was purchased for the price of A$687 million. As of September 2012, the company had a total of 1,337 branches worldwide. In 2016, ANZ adopted less aggressive approach to expansion in the Asia-Pacific region after low returns. At the end of October 2016 ANZ announced the sale of its Asian retail and wealth management operations to the Development Bank of Singapore; ANZ also signalled a withdrawal from its "Asian pivot". In 2020, as tensions between the US and China