Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) has been fined $160 million (240 million Australian dollars) by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

The fine from the regulator follows a range of issues including incorrectly reporting its bond trading data to the Australian government and misconduct across products and services which impacted almost 65,000 customers.

The bank has agreed to pay the penalty, which ASIC said is the largest it has ever imposed on one entity.

ASIC said the misconduct occurred over many years and was marked by ANZ’s “significant failure” to manage non-financial risk across the bank.

ASIC and ANZ will ask Australia’s Federal Court to impose the penalty in relation to four separate proceedings spanning misconduct across ANZ’s Institutional and Retail divisions.

The four matters ASIC has filed against ANZ include failing to respond to hundreds of customer hardship notices, in some cases for over two years, and failing to have proper hardship processes in place.

Additionally, the bank failing to refund fees charged to thousands of dead customers and did not respond to people trying to deal with deceased estates within the required timeframe.

ANZ has also been accused of making false and misleading statements about its savings interest rates and failing to pay the promised interest rate to tens of thousands of customers.

ASIC added that the bank acted unconscionably in its dealings with the Australian government whilst managing a $14 billion bond deal and incorrectly reported its bond trading data to the Australian government by overstating the volumes by tens of billions of dollars over almost two years.

ANZ has admitted the allegations in each of the proceedings.

ASIC chair Joe Longo said that ANZ betrayed the trust of Australians and that there are fundamental issues with the bank’s risk and compliance culture that require urgent attention.

‘The total penalties across these matters are the largest announced by ASIC against one entity and reflect the seriousness and number of breaches of law, the vulnerable position that ANZ put its customers in and the repeated failures to rectify crucial issues” he added. “Banks must have the trust of customers and government - this outcome shows an unacceptable disregard for that trust that is critical to the banking system.”

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