‘Betrayed the trust of Australians’: ANZ bank pays record $240m fine for widespread misconduct | Banking

Anz Bank will pay 240 million dollars penaltyThe biggest fines published by the financial regulatory ASIC to date is to solve four investigations to common abuses that risk public funds and affect tens of thousands of customers.

The Bank agreed to engage in undisputed behaviors while collecting money to finance expenditures in critical fields such as health, prosperity, education, infrastructure and defense.

In addition, the regulatory Anz could not respond to hundreds of customer shortages, made misleading statements about savings interest rates and did not pay back the fees charged to thousands of dead customers.

He said The abuse took place for years and was marked with Anz’s important failure to manage non -financial risks throughout the bank ”.

In a statement on Monday, ASIC President Joe Longo said, “Anz betrayed the confidence of the Australians ve and the abuse impressed approximately 65,000 customers.

“Banks should have the confidence of customers and the government. This result is unacceptable for this trust for the banking system,” he said.

“There are basic problems with Anz’s risk and harmony culture, which requires the urgent attention of the board of directors and managers.”

Anz confessed to the allegations, said he did not believe that he had caused any losses for Commonwealth.

The penalties are subject to approved by the Federal Court and contain a total penalty of $ 115 million for $ 125 million for corporate and markets (including a record of 80 million dollars for non -obscene behaviors) and three retail issues.

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ASIC filed four cases:

• While governing a bond agreement of 14 billion dollars, including tens of billions of dollars for approximately two years of volumes of bond traders data, to act undisputed in the Bank’s relations with the Australian government.

• In some cases, hundreds of customers have been unable to respond to the difficulties of difficulty for more than two years.

• To make false and misleading expressions about savings interest rates and not to pay the promised rates to tens of thousands of customers.

• That it does not respond to families who are charged to thousands of dead customers and dealing with deceased properties within the necessary time schedules.

Anz ‘President Paul O’Sullivan issued an apology to customers and said that the company had made the necessary measures, including holding the relevant executives responsible ”.

“Although we work hard to regularly get certainty on these issues, the truth is that we have made mistakes with a significant impact on customers,” he said.

“I apologize for Anz.”

‘Common abuse’

On April 19, 2023, Anz took part in offering a bond problem of $ 14 billion on April 19, 2023.

Governments regularly sell bonds to investors to make money. In contrast, investors receive regular interest payments and eventually get their capital back.

ASIC claimed that it had sold a significant amount of bond term transactions at a time that created downward pressure on the price of the bank and exposes the government to “significant loss of harm”.

“When the government asked what happened later, Anz’s reports are misleading or deceptive,” ASIC said.

Separately, the regulator Anz said that he could not respond to 488 customers who sent financial difficulties notification between May 2022 and September 2024.

In some cases, the regulator said that even when Anz did not respond to the difficulty notifications of the customers, including the default notifications and the interaction of external debt collection agencies, he took action to save debts from customers.

Anz also allegedly could not return the fees collected to thousands of deceased customers because they could not determine which fees and processes should be waived or returned.

The regulator said that the problem is probably gathering the difficulties faced by loved ones who deal with the death of a family member or relative ”.

More than seven years ago, the Royal Commission has revealed similar issues in the sector.

ASIC also claimed that thousands of customers have missed bonus interest payments that owed to various savings accounts.