Australia and New Zealand Banking Group admitted on 15 September 2025 to a series of regulatory failures spanning both its institutional markets business and its retail banking operations. The bank and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission agreed to jointly ask the Federal Court to impose total penalties of A$240 million across four separate proceedings.
The admissions cover misconduct across two distinct areas of ANZ's operations. On the institutional side, the bank admitted to engaging in unconscionable conduct in services provided to the Australian Government while managing a A$14 billion bond deal, and to incorrectly reporting its bond trading data by overstating volumes by tens of billions of dollars over almost two years. On the retail side, ANZ acknowledged widespread failures across products and services that affected nearly 65,000 customers.
PENALTY BREAKDOWN ACROSS FOUR PROCEEDINGS
The agreed A$240 million in proposed penalties is divided between A$125 million for the institutional and markets matters — including A$80 million proposed for the unconscionable conduct finding — and A$115 million for three separate retail-related proceedings. ASIC and ANZ will present the joint submission to the Federal Court, which retains the authority to determine whether to accept the proposed amounts or to set different figures.
The retail violations cited in the proceedings include the bank promoting inaccurate interest rates to customers between August 2024 and March 2025, failing to pay the correct interest to 26,917 customers with an estimated total shortfall of approximately A$480,000, and a failure to refund fees charged to thousands of deceased customers, for which ANZ has remediated more than 18,900 accounts a total of A$3.8 million.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo said that in the bond trading case ANZ "was in a trusted position and its conduct had the potential to reduce the amount of funding available to the government".
ASIC PROCEEDINGS AGAINST ANZ SINCE 2016
Including the current matters, ASIC has filed eleven civil penalty proceedings against ANZ since 2016.
ANZ chair Paul O'Sullivan apologised to customers, saying the bank had taken "the necessary action, including holding relevant executives accountable".