ANZ is set to pay $240 million in fines for misconduct impacting thousands of customers and the Federal Government.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Chair Joe Longo said ANZ had admitted to incorrectly reporting its bond trading data to the Australian Government by overstating the volumes by 10 of billions of dollars and to widespread misconduct across products and services impacting nearly 65,000 customers.
Mr Longo said ASIC and ANZ would ask the Federal Court to impose penalties of $240 million in relation to four separate proceedings spanning misconduct across ANZ’s Institutional and Retail divisions.
He said the misconduct occurred over many years and was marked by ANZ’s significant failure to manage non-financial risk across the bank.
“Time and time again ANZ betrayed the trust of Australians.”
Mr Longo said the four matters ASIC had filed against ANZ concerned:
- Acting unconscionably in its dealings with the Australian Government whilst managing a $14 billion bond deal and incorrectly reported its bond trading data to the Australian Government by overstating the volumes by tens of billions of dollars over almost two years.
- Failing to respond to hundreds of customer hardship notices, in some cases for over two years, and failing to have proper hardship processes in place.
- Making false and misleading statements about its savings interest rates and failing to pay the promised interest rate to tens of thousands of customers.
- Failing to refund fees charged to thousands of dead customers and not responding to loved ones trying to deal with deceased estates within the required timeframe.
He said the penalties, subject to consideration and approval by the Federal Court, included $125 million for the institutional and markets matters, including a record $80 million penalty for unconscionable conduct, and $115 million in total penalties for the three retail matters.
“The total penalties across these matters are the largest announced by ASIC against one entity and reflect 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.”
