The major bank has been ordered to pay $250 million in penalties after widespread misconduct caused systemic risk failures across its business.
The Federal Court has ordered Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) pay $250 million in penalties for widespread misconduct and systemic risk failures affecting the Australian Government, taxpayers and at least 65,000 retail customers.
These represent the largest combined penalties ASIC has secured against a single entity.
A $240 million fine was first announced in September but his Honour Justice Jonathan Beach increased the penalty for ANZ’s inaccurate reporting of secondary bond market turnover data by $10 million, lifting the penalty for that misconduct to $50 million.
The outcome relates to four separate court proceedings spanning misconduct across ANZ’s Institutional and Retail divisions, first announced in September 2025.
Justice Beach ordered ANZ pay $135 million in combined penalties for institutional and markets misconduct linked to the management of a $14 billion government bond deal and inaccurate reporting of secondary bond market turnover data to the Australian Government, including a record $80 million penalty for unconscionable conduct.
He further ordered $40 million for failing to respond to hundreds of customer hardship notices, in some cases for more than two years, and for failing to have proper hardship processes in place.
Another $40 million was imposed for making false and misleading statements about savings interest rates and failing to pay the promised rate to tens of thousands of customers.
A $35 million penalty was applied for failing to refund fees charged to thousands of deceased customers and not responding to loved ones trying to deal with estates inside the required timeframe.
ASIC chair Joe Longo said, “ANZ is a critical part of Australia’s banking system and, frankly, they must do better.”
“The size of the penalties ordered today underscores the seriousness of ANZ’s misconduct and its far-reaching consequences for the Government, taxpayers and tens of thousands of customers.”
He said ANZ must overhaul its non-financial risk management and prioritise the interests of clients, customers and the public.
“In the bond trading and misreporting matter, ANZ exposed the Australian Government to a significant risk of harm, denied the Government an opportunity to protect itself and the public interest, and mislead the government for nearly two years by overstating bond trading volumes by billions of dollars,” Longo added. “ASIC estimates ANZ’s trading misconduct cost up to $26 million, reducing funds that could have supported essential public services.”
ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said, “Tens of thousands of customers suffered from systemic failures across ANZ’s retail bank, which extended to fundamental banking basics like paying the correct interest rate on savings accounts.”
She said ANZ would pay for misconduct that worsened already difficult circumstances for customers experiencing hardship or dealing with the loss of a loved one.
“This outcome sends a clear message to ANZ that it needs to do better by its customers and to all banks that the cost of breaking the law is not an acceptable cost of doing business.”
In relation to the $14 billion government bond deal, Justice Beach said: “ANZ did not act conscionably, did not act transparently, nor did it trade in the way in which it said it would but, to the contrary, it conducted its hedging in a manner which caused undue pricing pressure on the reference price product at the time of pricing.”
He said ANZ’s behaviour was particularly serious given its inaccurate and incomplete statements to the AOFM when concerns were raised about pricing.
“ANZ’s post-completion conduct reveals a lack of candour and frankness about its trading,” he said.
When increasing the penalty for misreporting conduct to $50 million, the Court found ANZ’s behaviour was “inexcusable” with “no redeeming feature whatsoever” and that a “very substantial penalty needs to be imposed to achieve both specific deterrence and general deterrence.”
Justice Beach further stated: “Accurate information is the life-blood of the AOFM in its assessment of the activities in the relevant markets and the position of the participants.”
In his judgment on the retail matters, Justice Beach reflected on the “serious and unacceptable nature of the contraventions’ and emphasised penalties were “not to be regarded as a cost of doing business”.
The $35 million penalty for misconduct relating to deceased estates ‘puts a price on the contraventions that is appropriate to deter both repetition by ANZ and contravention by other licensees.’
Justice Beach noted ANZ had “engaged constructively with ASIC” and made early admissions. ANZ admitted to the misconduct in September 2025 and, together with ASIC, asked the Court to impose penalties of $240 million.
Each matter was separately considered in hearings on 2–3 December 2025, with judgment delivered on 19 December 2025.
Commenting, ANZ said in a statement that it has a dedicated program of work underway as part of a root cause remediation plan.
“ANZ is focused on significantly improving its management of non-financial risks across the bank, with a dedicated program of work underway as part of its Root Cause Remediation Plan. In addition, ANZ has established an ASIC Matters Resolution Program within Australia Retail to meet commitments to ASIC to deliver improvements across a number of areas in its retail division. Both programs of work will be reviewed by Promontory, an independent expert appointed to review and report on progress and delivery of this work.”
