ANZ boss Shayne Elliott says taxpayers weren’t hit by bond debacle but issues ‘very serious’

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ANZ boss Shayne Elliott says taxpayers weren’t hit by bond debacle but issues ‘very serious’

ANZ boss Shayne Elliott has strongly defended the bank’s handling of a $14 billion bond trading debacle but claimed taxpayers were not impacted.

The bank is under investigation by the *********** Securities and Investments Commission over a troubled program selling Federal Government bonds in 2023.

Mr Elliott said he had not seen any evidence that supported any misconduct and ASIC had not yet put forward any firm allegations.

Yet he acknowledged the corporate regulator had concerns and may have information he was not aware of.

ANZ had acted as risk manager for the bond ***** by the *********** Office of Financial Management — which handles close to $1 trillion of federal debt.

The bonds are used as a benchmark for borrowing costs across the economy and manipulation may have led to higher interest costs for taxpayers on debt.

Mr Elliott played down those concerns under parliamentary committee questioning on Friday.

But he admitted misconduct could hypothetically have impacted borrowing costs for taxpayers.

“Clearly it’s very serious. I’m not shying away from the seriousness of it,” Mr Elliott said.

“Internally we’ve investigated. .. I’ve not seen any evidence that supports any misconduct, market manipulation or otherwise from ANZ.

“ASIC may have a different view.

“Hypothetically market manipulation could have all sorts of impacts on the markets.

“It could have meant higher costs to taxpayers but we’ve seen no evidence of that at this stage.”

The 30-year veteran of banking also sought to draw a line in the sand under two other issues which had engulfed ANZ’s Sydney trading team.

He knocked back allegations of ******** use and bullying in the team raised by Hasluck Labor politician Tania Lawrence.

Three traders had left the business, however, including for alcohol use.

The Melbourne-based bank has already said Mr Elliott apologised to AOFM for issues reporting trading data – which he told the inquiry were mistakes “on a spreadsheet”.

ANZ retail boss Maile Carnegie revealed Mr Elliott had told senior staff to expect their bonuses would take a hit because of the reputation damage from the three issues.

Shares in ANZ lifted 0.8 per cent to be $30.28 at the time of writing.

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