ANZ shareholders reject executive pay plan for second year in a row | ANZ
ANZ shareholders staged a “second strike” against the bank’s executive pay plans at a heated annual general meeting on Thursday, amid growing anger over a series of regulatory breaches including the failure to refund wages charged to thousands of dead customers.
The bank was recently fined a record $240 million by the corporate regulator to settle four investigations into widespread abuses that put public funds at risk and affected tens of thousands of customers.
Shareholders responded to the bank’s pay report – a mechanism designed to hold companies accountable for management decisions and pay rates – by striking for the second year in a row.
ANZ chairman Paul O’Sullivan defended the board’s performance on Thursday.
“We felt it would be in shareholders’ interests to agree with regulators on what was required to resolve shareholders’ concerns and avoid becoming embroiled in lengthy and expensive litigation,” O’Sullivan said.
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The Sydney meeting was marked by a series of abrupt exchanges; one shareholder called O’Sullivan’s response to his question about transparency “disgraceful.”
In September, ANZ admitted to unconscionable conduct in raising money for the federal government; failure to respond to hundreds of customer distress reports; making misleading statements about savings interest rates; and failure to refund fees collected from thousands of deceased customers.
Joe Longo, chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission at the time, said: He called the bank’s actions “dirty”.
More than 32% of shareholders’ votes were cast against the bank’s compensation plans; this rate was well above the 25% required to register a strike.
Back-to-back strikes triggered a separate vote on whether to dissolve the board, which was roundly rejected.
ANZ was also forced to defend its decision to cut 3,500 full-time jobs, as well as 1,000 contractor jobs, amid claims the Financial Industry Union (FSU) treatment of staff was “brutal”.
FSU national president Wendy Streets told the board on Thursday that many employees were working with the threat of layoffs “hanging over their heads.”
“Everything the union has asked ANZ to help these workers has been denied,” Streets said.
“You have staff who have left in the last few months on the unemployment line, making it one of the most difficult times of the year to find new jobs,” Streets said.
FSU has asked ANZ to provide clarity on those who will be affected by ongoing redundancy plans.
ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos said it was a “difficult situation” for employees.
“If we do this too quickly, we run the risk of being unfair, and we don’t want to be unfair to people,” Matos said.
“If we do it too slowly it creates anxiety. So we’re trying to fix that.”
