ANZ shareholders delivered a “second strike” against the bank’s executive pay plans at a heated annual general meeting on Thursday, amid simmering anger over a string of regulatory breaches that included failing to refund fees charged to thousands of dead customers.
The bank was recently hit with a record $240m in penalties to settle four investigations by the corporate regulator into widespread misconduct that put public funds at risk, and affected tens of thousands of customers.
Shareholders responded by registering a strike against the bank’s remuneration report – a mechanism designed to hold companies to account over managerial decisions and pay rates – for the second consecutive year.
The ANZ chair, Paul O’Sullivan, defended the board’s performance on Thursday.
“We thought it was in the best interests of shareholders to agree with regulators what was necessary in order to resolve any of their concerns, and not to get involved in extended and expensive litigation,” O’Sullivan said.
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The Sydney meeting was marked by a series of abrupt exchanges, with one shareholder describing a response by O’Sullivan to her question over transparency as “disgraceful”.
In September, ANZ admitted to engaging in unconscionable conduct when raising money for the federal government; failing to respond to hundreds of customer hardship notices; making misleading statements about its savings interest rates; and failing to refund fees charged to thousands of dead customers.
At the time, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission chair, Joe Longo, described the bank’s actions as “grubby”.
More than 32% of shareholder votes were cast against the bank’s remuneration plans, well above the 25% required to record a strike.
The consecutive strikes triggered a separate vote on whether to spill the board, which was firmly voted down.
ANZ was also forced to defend its decision to cut 3,500 full-time roles, along with 1,000 contractor jobs, amid claims by the Finance Sector Union (FSU) its treatment of staff had been “atrocious”.
The FSU national president, Wendy Streets, told the board on Thursday many employees were working with the threat of a job cut “hanging over their head”.
“Every single thing the union has asked for from ANZ to help these workers has been declined,” Streets said.
“Your staff who have left in the last couple of months are on the unemployment line leading into one of the most difficult periods of the year to find new employment,” Streets said.
The FSU has asked ANZ to provide clarity to those who will be affected by the redundancy plans, which are ongoing.
The ANZ chief executive, Nuno Matos, said it was a “tough situation” for employees.
“If we do it too fast, we run risks to be unfair, and we don’t want to be unfair to people,” Matos said.
“If we do it too slow, it creates anxiety. So we are trying to make it right.”
