Daily London
The Federal Court has hit ANZ with an extra $10 million fine on top of a record $240 million penalty for years of “unconscionable conduct”.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said the bank’s widespread misconduct and systemic failures affected the Australian government, taxpayers and at least 65,000 retail bank customers.
The corporate regulator found the bank mismanaged $14 billion bond deal on behalf of the federal government, failed to refund fees charged to thousands of dead customers and ignored hundreds of customer hardship notices.
The watchdog also found the bank made false and misleading statements about savings interest rates.
However, the Federal Court ruled today that the figure ANZ must pay should be even higher, imposing a total fine of $250 million against the big four bank.
ASIC chair Joe Longo said ANZ “is a critical part of Australia’s banking system” that “must do better”.
“The size of the penalties ordered today underscores the seriousness of ANZ’s misconduct and its far-reaching consequences for the government, taxpayers and tens of thousands of customers,” Longo said.
“ANZ must overhaul its non-financial risk management and put the interests of clients, customers and the public first.
“In the bond trading and misreporting matter, ANZ exposed the Australian government to a significant risk of harm, denied the government an opportunity to protect itself and the public interest, and misled the government for nearly two years by overstating bond trading volumes by billions of dollars.
“ASIC estimates ANZ’s trading misconduct cost up to $26 million, reducing funds that could have supported essential public services.”
ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said tens of thousands of customers suffered from systemic failures.
“ANZ will also pay for misconduct that made an already difficult time far harder for hundreds of its customers who were experiencing hardship or dealing with the loss of a loved one,” Court said.
“This outcome sends a clear message to ANZ that it needs to do better by its customers and to all banks that the cost of breaking the law is not an acceptable cost of doing business.”
In a statement, ANZ said it is “focused on significantly improving its management of non-financial risks across the bank, with a dedicated program of work underway as part of its root cause remediation plan”.
“In addition, ANZ has established an ASIC matters resolution program within Australia retail to meet commitments to ASIC to deliver improvements across a number of areas in its retail division.”
