ANZ Bank will pay $240 million in fines after admitting to several big mistakes. The bank did many things wrong like sending wrong information about bond trading to the government. They also didn’t help customers who were having money problems and kept charging fees to accounts of people who had died.
The bank’s bad behavior went on for many years and affected about 65000 customers. These problems happened in different parts of the bank including both business and personal banking sections.
The head of ASIC Joe Longo said this was the biggest fine they ever gave to one company. He explained that the fine was so big because ANZ broke many laws and their mistakes were very serious.
ASIC boss Longo stated that ANZ has let down Australian customers many times.
The bank must now pay $125 million in fines for mishandling a big government bond deal and giving wrong information about their bond trading numbers. They reported much higher amounts than real for almost two years.
ANZ Cops Record $240m Fine in Australia
ANZ also has to pay $40 million because they didn’t give bonus interest to many online savings accounts and showed wrong interest rates.
Another $40 million fine is because they ignored hundreds of people who asked for help with money problems. Some people waited more than two years for a response.
The bank must pay one more fine of $35 million. This is because they kept charging fees to dead customers & took too long to help families who were sorting out the accounts of their deceased relatives.
ANZ bank got in trouble with ASIC for making many mistakes. Sarah Court from ASIC said the bank failed at basic tasks & had problems in many areas.
She pointed out that ANZ is a major bank that people trust but it couldn’t even pay the right interest to customers. ASIC wants the court to give ANZ a big fine to show banks that breaking rules is not okay.
The Federal Court will decide the final punishment. This should teach ANZ and other banks that they can’t treat fines as just another business cost.
ANZ issues public apology after $240m fine
ANZ’s top leader Paul O’Sullivan said sorry to customers and explained that the bank took action to fix things. This included making sure the managers involved faced consequences.
He admitted that even though they tried to follow the rules they still made big mistakes that hurt their customers.
The bank’s CEO Nuno Matos was direct about their poor performance.
He said they let people down especially when customers needed help the most. He promised they would do better.
We want to say sorry to our customers. We know we made mistakes and we are working to fix them. We have started programs to help the customers affected by these problems.
Last week ANZ said it would remove 3,500 jobs & 1000 contractor roles in the next year.
The bank wants to make things simpler and focus on what matters most. They also want to give better service to their customers.
This big change will cost the bank $560 million before tax.
What led to ANZ's record $240m fine in Australia?
Trust breach impacting 65,000 individuals.
