ANZ Agrees to Record A$240 Million Penalty for Corporate Misconduct

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said Monday it has agreed to pay a record A$240 million (about US$160 million) in penalties for corporate misconduct that regulators say affected almost 65,000 customers and the federal government.

The bank and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said they will ask a federal court to endorse the penalties across four separate prosecutions. ASIC said the amount would be the largest penalty it has sought against a single entity for corporate misconduct, surpassing the previous record of A$113 million imposed on Westpac in 2022.

ASIC Chair Joe Longo said the scale and nature of the breaches, and ANZ’s failure to promptly fix them, warranted the record penalty. "The penalties we’ll be asking the court to impose including a record penalty ASIC has sought for unconscionable conduct reflects the seriousness and number of breaches of law, the vulnerable position that ANZ put its customers in and the repeated failure to rectify crucial issues," Longo said.

ASIC said ANZ admitted to a string of failings, including not refunding charges to thousands of deceased customers, failing to respond to hundreds of customer hardship notices—some for more than two years—and making false or misleading statements about savings interest rates while failing to pay promised interest to tens of thousands of customers. The regulator also accused ANZ of acting unconscionably in its dealings with the federal government while managing A$14 billion in bonds over a two-year period.

ANZ Chief Executive Nuno Matos, who took the role in May, said the bank accepted the findings and expected measurable improvements as a result of remediation work. "The failings outlined are simply not good enough and they reinforce the case for change," Matos said.

The announced penalties relate to four separate prosecutions brought by ASIC. The regulator has pursued court action over what it says were breaches of consumer law and obligations owed to government clients. The federal court will consider whether to accept the agreed penalties and any accompanying orders aimed at remediation and systemic change.

The misconduct covers an array of customer-facing and institutional failures that regulators say persisted over multiple years. ASIC’s statement emphasized the effects on vulnerable customers and the need for stronger systems to ensure timely refunds, accurate disclosure of interest rates and appropriate handling of hardship claims.

The penalties come amid intensified regulatory scrutiny of Australia’s banks since a series of high-profile compliance failures earlier in the decade. In 2022, Westpac was fined A$113 million for widespread compliance breaches; ASIC’s pursuit of a larger penalty against ANZ signals continued enforcement focus on banks’ conduct and governance.

ANZ did not disclose details of any additional remedial actions or operational changes in its statement beyond Matos’s pledge to improve customer care. The bank and ASIC will present the agreed terms to the federal court for endorsement, after which the full terms of the penalties and any ordered remediation measures will become public as part of the court process.