ANZ, a house in flames
Nuno Matos is wielding the flamethrower like a man in his element.
It is quite marvellous to see the abiding hubris of ANZ Banking Group bearing its rotten fruit. On Monday, the bank reached a bundled settlement with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission of multiple transgressions – including the misconduct of a Commonwealth bond sale and the quite separate cheating of its retail customers (both alive and dead). ANZ will pay a $240 million penalty.
ANZ chairman Paul O'Sullivan fronted an investor call to "apologise unreservedly" before proceeding to itemise a highly qualified apology.
"I want to be very clear with you today about what the trading matter is not about. ASIC has not alleged market manipulation or over-hedging by ANZ… It is ANZ's view that our trading as duration manager did not harm the Commonwealth". Furthermore, "ASIC has agreed that the data misreporting was not intentional". According to O'Sullivan, it was all a matter of "failures in systems and processes" and that "we did not adequately communicate the intended manner of our trading…"
Yet in an agreed statement of facts filed on Friday in the Federal Court, ANZ admitted to unconscionable conduct in "the trading matter", in particular, misleading or deceiving the Australian government. Those agreed facts certainly did not include that the Commonwealth suffered no harm.