A major Australian bank is guilty of "grubby", unconscionable behaviour, the country's top securities regulator says in imposing record penalties.
ANZ on Monday agreed to pay $240 million in fines, six years after a royal commission found widespread misconduct in Australia's financials services industry.
The big four bank admitted to failing to respond to hundreds of notices about customer hardship, making false and misleading statements about its savings interest rates and failing to pay those amounts to customers.
It also mishandled a $14 billion bond deal for the federal government, which ASIC said effectively cost the commonwealth about $26 million.
"It was clearly grubby," Australia Securities and Investments Commission chairman Joseph Longo said.
"Let's be frank. They said they were going to follow their own policies and they didn't."
ANZ submitted inaccurate data regarding secondary bond turnover for two years to the Australian Office of Financial Management, which had hired the bank as its bond duration manager.
"None of that conduct is regarded as intentional, but the cumulative effect of it is unconscionable conduct," Mr Longo said.
"There were repeated failures internally with teh data and the systems and the processes, and they had several opportunities to rectify their reporting, but through a combination of organisational incompetence and a failure to get a grip on their own data and systems and processes, they let themselves down."
The bank's other failures included failing to refund fees to thousands of deceased customers and not responding to deceased estates inquiries from loved ones within the required time frame.
The penalties are the largest announced by ASIC against one entity, according to Mr Longo.
ANZ had admitted to the allegations and taken action, including holding relevant executives accountable, chairman Paul O'Sullivan said.
More than 50 accountability reviews have been completed and some current and former executives have had their pay docked.
Most affected customers - that ANZ has been able to identify - have been remediated, while 56,000 customers due bonus interest from August 2024 to March are expected to be compensated soon.
But ANZ has been unable to identify the total number of dead people to whom it charged fees between 2019 and 2023.
The penalties will put more pressure on CEO Nuno Matos, who came under fire last week after announcing ANZ would lay off 3500 staff and 1000 contractors by September 2026.
Mr Nuno apologised to affected customers.
"The failings outlined are simply not good enough and they reinforce the case for change," he said.
"Unfortunately, some of our failings occurred when our customers were at their most vulnerable.
"For this, we are deeply sorry."
Each matter will be separately considered and determined by the Federal Court.
