ANZ ex-CEO Shayne Elliott’s $13.5m bonus up in smoke, as profits tumble
ANZ has stripped former CEO Shayne Elliott of $13.5m in bonuses after regulatory failings, while most senior executives had their bonuses marked down to zero.
ANZ has savaged executive bonuses in the wake of several scandals, with the banking major’s profits tumbling more than 14 per cent to $5.7bn.
Ruling off its full-year earnings on Monday, ANZ revealed its former chief executive Shayne Elliott would see nearly $13.5m of his bonuses denied, while new boss Nuno Matos also took no windfall this year in an attempt to show he was “part of the team” at the beleaguered bank.
The fourth biggest bank in Australia, ANZ saw its earnings cruelled by scandals alongside ballooning restructuring costs in a shake-up pushed by Mr Matos, who took control of the bank in May.
But even excluding the significant items detailed last month, its annual cash profit was flat at $6.8bn from last year.
Mr Matos said the bank was showing the strengths of its New Zealand bank and Institutional division.
But ANZ’s retail bank and its commercial lender were both laggards, growing slower than the broader banking system.
ANZ’s retail bank has been dogged by scandal, resulting in nearly half the $240m fine paid by the bank after action from the corporate regulator.
Maile Carnegie, ANZ’s former retail bank boss, who retired in July, was also denied a $4.4m bonus.
Earlier this year, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority imposed a court-enforceable undertaking on ANZ over concerns about its non-financial risk management practices and risk culture.
In response, ANZ wiped nearly $32m from its C-suite, targeting its former technology head Gerard Florian and head of strategy, Anthony Strong, as well as several other executives.
Mr Elliott, now also retired, will receive $0 for his short-term bonus for the 2025 financial year, while he was found to also be ineligible for his 2026 long-term bonus, meaning he will miss out on a total of $13.5m.
ANZ people and culture committee chair Holly Kramer noted Mr Elliott had been found accountable for various non-financial risk failures and also strife in the retail division, which had charged fees to dead customers and failed to handle hardship applications.
But Mr Matos, who marks his seventh month in the top job also took no bonus, telling The Australian it was a simple decision.
“I wanted to clearly state … that I’m part of the team, even though the facts that justify the board decision obviously precede me, I asked the board to treat me as one of the team,” he said.
“I am a big believer of leading by example. I am a big believer in being part of the team. This is a collective work.”
Mr Matos still took home $975,000 in base salary for his time at the bank since May 12. He was also paid $52,000 in non-cash benefits, including relocation costs, as he transferred from his base in Hong Kong.
Chief financial officer Farhan Faruqui, chief risk officer Kevin Corbally and group executive for institutional banking Mark Whelan all had their bonuses for the last financial year scratched.
Mr Matos said ANZ had also imposed consequences on traders in the bank’s markets division under Mr Whelan.
But he refused to discuss “detailed actions on individuals, even if it is broadly”.
“We have been quite conscious of the impact on our business, that the issues that were highlighted in the fine by ASIC,” he said.
“We want to do the right thing, we want to develop business on our standards and when that’s not the case, consequences arise.”
At last December’s annual general meeting, ANZ suffered a strike against its remuneration report, its first since the Hayne Royal Commission into banking in 2017.
In response to the shareholder anger over the fallout from the various regulatory issues at the bank, Mr Elliott elected to forgo his $3.2m bonus.
Ms Kramer noted that feedback from some shareholders had “reflected that 2024 remuneration outcomes were misaligned, particularly given issues raised by APRA and ASIC”.
This prompted a desire to “enhance transparency” in 2025’s remuneration report to avoid a dreaded second strike.
ANZ’s annual report also revealed that 36 current and former senior executives, executives and senior management had either received a warning or had their bonuses docked due to breaching the bank’s code of conduct or being responsible for a problem. This is up from 20 in 2024.
There had also been an almost 18 per cent increase in the number of alleged breaches of ANZ’s code of conduct resulting in an employee facing “formal consequences” or leaving the business, from 488 in 2024 to 567 this year.
ANZ is midway through plans to shed nearly 3500 staff, having already dumped 1000 contractors earlier this year under a cost-cutting plan flagged by Mr Matos.
The bank warned last month the staff cuts, plus faster action on Suncorp Bank would cost at least $1.1bn.
Mr Matos has brought forward the integration of Suncorp Bank, which ANZ scooped up in a $4.9bn deal aimed at bolstering its flagging retail bank.
ANZ now has nearly 6.4 million retail customers.
Mr Matos said the bank’s retail division had grown deposits at nearly 12 per cent, but said both it and the business had “a lot to do”.
He also revealed the bank had received approval from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority for its plans to improve risk in the wake of a series of scandals at the bank.
APRA has hit ANZ with a $500m capital charge over its non-financial risk failures, warning the bank was not doing enough to tackle the problem.
Mr Matos said the approval of the plan was a “significant milestone”.
ANZ declared a 83c per share final dividend, 70 per cent franked, flat on levels last year, taking total returns to $1.66.
Shares in ANZ closed up 2.99 per cent, or $1.10, to $37.90. They are up 29.75 per cent in the last six months.
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