ANZ turns on hospitality in NSW wine country to win over clients after bond trading scandal
Banking major ANZ invited about 250 high-valued clients to its annual three-day knees up in the Hunter Valley as it tries to halt the decline in deals market share.
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ANZ has turned to the art of old-school banking hospitality to keep the loyalty of its top clients and arrest a slide down the league tables in the wake of its bond trading scandal.
The big four bank hosted its Hunter Valley debt conference in the NSW wine region last week, hoping to draw a line under a downturn in deals. Industry data published by KangaNews shows ANZ has been missing in action on Australian domestic bond deals year-to-date: it failed to record any fee-earning deal work as of March 3 according to the industry trade publication.
ANZ ranked 8th in KangaNews’ league tables in 2024, after the bank participated in seven deals worth a combined $4.2bn. That means since 2023, ANZ has gone from 15.1 per cent of the market with $9.8bn in deals to a deal drought.
The corporate regulator meanwhile is investigating ANZ over allegations its traders profited at the expense of taxpayers in a $14bn government bond auction in 2023.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is also examining ANZ’s deal disclosures, after the bank overstated its self-reported deals tally by $54.4bn in data supplied to the Australian Office of Financial Management, which is the federal government’s debt agency.
Since being put on pause by the AOFM for sovereign bond sales, the bank has missed out on several other mandates, too.
It has shed marginal market share in credit trading – an area unaffected by the government bond scandal -- and slipped a place in rankings with $1.53bn of deals in 2025, representing 15.1 per cent market share.
That compares with ANZ’s 17.6 per cent market share in credit deals the year before.
Outside of sovereign deals, ANZ’s broader bond market position has been mauled, slipping from fourth spot in 2024 with 10 per cent of all deals to sixth position with just 5.4 per cent.
An ANZ insider pointed to the strife in the bank’s markets business – which led to the departure of several traders – as a cause of the malaise in the banking major’s rankings.
ANZ’s profitable Singapore credit trading desk recently had a walkout after rival Standard Chartered poached several members of the team. Sources say it has recruited two new traders.
ANZ has also lured former Deutsche Bank trader Glenn Blackley as deputy head of markets to run the rates and credit operations. It elevated balance sheet trader Neil Lynch to head of rates trading, a role previously held by Chris Corbett.
Insiders believe the tumble down the league tables reflects the loss of business from clients who have been reluctant to hire ANZ amid the ASIC investigation and the potential for serious reputational damage.
ASIC chair Joe Longo said the regulator planned to finalise its investigation into ANZ by mid-2025.Outgoing ANZ boss Shayne Elliott is preparing for his last earnings result on May 8, before HSBC banker Nuno Matos takes over the top job on July 3.
Mr Longo has said ASIC’s probe into ANZ’s alleged market misconduct was among the “most complex” ever undertaken by its investigators.
It is hoping to change that perception with the Hunter Valley debt conference last week. The institutional bank has hosted a dinner at harbourfront restaurant Cafe Sydney, and the markets business facilitated a golf day at Sydney’s Pennant Hills Private Golf Club, where traders and clients were treated to its par 71 eighteen-hole championship course.
The three-day debt conference has previously made headlines after a legal suit by former bond trader Ettienne Alexiou revealed booze-fuelled partying took place in the after-hours as bankers cut loose.
In 2013, ANZ’s former global markets boss Steve Bellotti allegedly drove on the fairway in his Porsche Cayenne after the resort stopped serving drinks.
ANZ has historically rewarded staff and about 250 key clients with tickets to its Hunter Valley event, wooing high-value business.
An ANZ spokesman declined to provide details of its client hospitality.
“ANZ routinely meets with our customers to understand how we can best support their needs, including at client events,” he said.
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Originally published as ANZ turns on hospitality in NSW wine country to win over clients after bond trading scandal
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