On September 15, 2025, ANZ Group, based in Australia, agreed to pay USD 160 million for systemic violations, including unethical conduct during a government bond deal and other customer-related issues.

Background

The announcement marks a significant development for one of Australia’s largest banks. In the same week, ANZ announced a reduction of 3,500 jobs as part of its efforts to increase profitability amid increased capital reserve requirements due mainly to the fallout from the bond deal.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) stated that ANZ had broken the trust of Australians repeatedly. Since 2016, ASIC has brought 11 civil penalty cases against ANZ with total penalties amounting to nearly USD 106,491 million, all of which were admitted by ANZ. The bank acknowledged the need for significant operational changes and apologized for its actions, stating that necessary measures would be taken.

Specific Violations

The current settlement, pending Federal Court approval, resolves issues from five separate investigations across ANZ’s Australian Markets and Retail divisions. The core of the problems centered around ANZ’s conduct during a USD 9.3 billion government bond issuance on April 19, 2023.

According to ASIC, instead of trading gradually to mitigate market impact, ANZ sold large volumes of 10-year Australian bond futures near pricing time, pushing down the bond prices and supporting Australia Office & Financial Management’s debt issuance. This action pushed bond futures pricing down by two basis points, costing the government approximately USD 17,344 million. Although ANZ did not agree with this cost to the government, it offered to repay the USD 6.6 million earned from the deal and has since abstained from participating in any government deals.

Additional violations included customer service failures such as failing to pay promised bonus interest to new account holders between July 2013 and January 2024 due to system errors, and continuing to charge fees for deceased customers until June 2023 without identifying which should be waived or whether charges after death had been refunded.

By the end of September 2025, ANZ plans to present a remediation plan to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and anticipates spending approximately USD 100 million implementing reforms in the financial year ending on September 30, 2026.