ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:ANZ) said on Monday it will pay Australia’s securities regulator about A$240 million ($160 million) while admitting fault in several regulatory breaches, especially in its bond trading operations.
The latest settlement, which comes in a long line of civil proceedings against the Australian bank, resolves five separate probes into ANZ’s Australian Markets and Retail units by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The biggest of these settlements was linked to ANZ’s role in a A$14 billion government bond issuance in April 2023.
The lender had allegedly sold high volumes of 10-year Australian bond futures around the pricing of the issuance, which sharply drove down bond prices. ANZ also admitted to sending the Australian government inaccurate monthly bond turnover data for about two years since.
“The reality is we made mistakes that have had a significant impact on customers, ANZ Chairman Paul O’Sullivan said in a statement.
Beyond bond trading, ANZ was also penalized for several failures in its customer services. The lender did not pay bonus interest to many new account holders between 2013 and 2024.
The company also admitted to charging fees to thousands of deceased customers between 2019 and 2023.
The A$240 million penalty is among the biggest levied by the ASIC against an Australian firm, and adds to the at least 11 civil penalties raised by the regulator against ANZ since 2016.
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