Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has agreed to pay A$240 million (US$943 million) in fines after admitting to engaging in widespread misconduct and misreporting bond trading data to the Australian Government.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said ASIC and ANZ would ask the Federal Court to impose the penalties in relation to four proceedings spanning misconduct across the bank’s institutional and retail divisions.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo said the penalties were the largest by ASIC against one entity and reflected the seriousness and number of breaches of law, the vulnerable position that ANZ put its customers in and the repeated failures to rectify crucial issues.
“Time and time again ANZ betrayed the trust of Australians,” Longo said in a media release.
ANZ said it was subject to the following penalties:
- $85 million for its role as duration manager of a 10-year Treasury Bonds issue by the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) in 2023
- $40 million for submitting inaccurate monthly secondary bond turnover data to the AOFM, making a false or misleading annual attestation to the AOFM and failing to lodge a report with ASIC in respect of those inaccuracies
- $40 million for failing to pay acquisition bonus interest on some Online Saver accounts and displaying inaccurate rates
- $40 million for breaching its obligations in relation to customer hardship notices, and
- $35 million for breaches of obligations concerning deceased estates.
"The failings outlined are simply not good enough and they reinforce the case for change,” ANZ Chief Executive Officer Nuno Matos said in an ASX announcement.
The penalties in civil proceedings brought by ASIC against ANZ since 2016 total more than $310 million.
ANZ (ASX: ANZ) shares were trading 19 cents (0.59%) lower at $33.00, capitalising the smallest of Australia’s Big Four banks at $98.43 billion, at the time of writing.
