ANZ chairman Paul O’Sullivan says the majority of the time he has spent with the bank’s institutional investors since becoming chairman nearly a year ago has been on discussions about the bank’s “environment, social and governance” policies, as ANZ prepares to toughen its climate change commitments to further curb lending to companies mining fossil fuels.

In “frank and open conversations with so many of our investors”, Mr O’Sullivan said they had been probing the interactions between the ANZ board and management on ESG issues, its business processes and how ESG is reflected in performance and remuneration policies.