People cross the street in front of the ANZ Bank in Lambton Quay, Wellington. — Reuters
CANBERRA: ANZ Group Holdings Ltd boss Shayne Elliott says the bank has suffered significant reputational damage and needs to do more to improve risk management in the wake of allegations over poor culture and probes into trading practices.
A number of allegations have been externally examined that relate to conduct, and three people have subsequently left the bank, he said, facing questions from Australian lawmakers in Canberra.
Elliott said there were complaints from staff that a small number of people had behaved badly, citing the use of profanity in the dealing room and employees returning to the trading floor having consumed an unreasonable amount of alcohol.
“You always have to be concerned, these are serious allegations, whether it’s the conduct of individuals or the potential for market manipulation,” Elliott, ANZ’s chief executive officer (CEO), said. “Clearly we’ve got work to do.”
CEOs from the nation’s four major banks have testified during a two-day hearing in front of the House of Representatives Economics Committee.
It’s part of an annual review into lenders that spans a wide range of topics from digital payments to regional branches and the impact of monetary policy.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) is running an investigation into ANZ that it expects will continue into 2025 around the firm’s role in a treasury bond sale last year.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) last week increased the capital ANZ needs to hold, citing a lack of improvement in risk management and insisted on an independent audit of the allegations.
Elliott said his firm is working with Apra on the scope of an independent culture and control review within its markets business, which will report to the board.
The board will ensure there are appropriate consequences for proven failures or misconduct, he said.
“As the committee may appreciate, there is a limit to how much I can discuss these matters today,” Elliott said.
“However, I do assure the committee that we are taking them very seriously.”
ANZ has admitted that it overstated its bond-trading volumes in reports it submitted to the government.
The bank has engaged law firms to probe both matters, and pledged to hold people accountable for any wrongdoing it finds.
ANZ is helping Asic with its investigation over the April 2023 bond sale and documents shared may have reached the millions at this point, he said.
Elliott said that internal inquiries by the bank haven’t shown any evidence of misconduct, market manipulation or otherwise.
“At this point Asic has not put an allegation to us,” Elliott said. “They are doing an investigation.”
Separately, Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO Matt Comyn, who was first up last Thursday, said regulators have an “undue level of concern” about the big banks scrapping bonus caps when mortgage brokers never adopted such pay reforms.
Later, Westpac Banking Corp’s Peter King criticised social media tech giants for being “missing in action” in closing the loop on scams.
National Australia Bank Ltd boss Andrew Irvine last Friday noted the increasing divisions within the nation’s economy. — Bloomberg
