Etienne Alexiou: ANZ avoids payout as trader drops $30m suit

Former trader Etienne Alexiou has withdrawn a $30m legal action against ANZ for unfair dismissal.

ANZ (ANZ) has escaped a hefty payout to Etienne Alexiou after the former trader withdrew a $30 million legal action against the bank for unfair dismissal, resolving one of a series of reputationally damaging cases this year.

ANZ yesterday said no money was paid to Mr Alexiou and each party would meet their own legal costs in accordance with Fair Work Act proceedings.

“The closure of this case means all legal action initiated by employees who were dismissed in late 2015 for serious breaches of our code of conduct has been withdrawn,” said ANZ chief risk officer Nigel Williams.

“While it’s disappointing our business and our people have been unfairly subjected to a series of unfounded claims, ANZ will continue to take an uncompromising stance to legal disputes of this nature where it considers them to be without merit.”

It comes after Patrick O’Connor, a former bond trader sacked from the bank last year over the alleged misuse of a corporate credit card, in January dropped his unfair dismissal case against ANZ.

Mr Alexiou and Mr O’Connor’s claims emerged in January in the Federal Court after they were stood down for improper use of internal communications systems and misuse of a corporate credit card.

Both claimed a culture of out-of-control behaviour was rife among the upper echelons of the bank and particularly on the global markets desk, including the frequenting strip clubs and drug taking.

Mr Alexiou was stood down, along with six others, with full pay in late 2014 as part of an investigation by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission into the possible rigging of the Bank Bill Swap Rate (BBSW).

A former Barclays Bank senior trader, Mr Alexiou was dismissed as ANZ’s head of mismatch trading permanently in August last year after being investigated for more than 400 communications that the bank alleges breached the ANZ code of conduct.

In ANZ’s termination letter to Mr Alexiou, the bank said he could not simply blame “the culture” for his behaviour.

ASIC has since launched action against ANZ, Westpac and National Australia Bank for rigging the BBSW, a key interest rate benchmark off which billions of dollars of loans and securities are priced.

While ANZ sacked two more of the seven traders caught up in ASIC’s investigation, the bank in April reinstated four of the employees after an internal review found no wrongdoing. “We will continue to take the appropriate action to strengthen our culture and to build on our reputation for corporate responsibility,” ANZ told staff in April.

ANZ, Westpac and NAB have vowed to fight ASIC’s claims about BBSW manipulation and unconscionable conduct in court. ANZ is also embroiled in legal action brought by former senior Bell Potter stockbroker Angus Aitken, who is suing the bank, its chief executive Shayne Elliott and communications boss Paul Edwards for defamation, intimidation and misleading and deceptive conduct.

ANZ has filed a defence against the action, brought after Mr Aitken was sacked following a note to clients criticising the bank’s appointment of Michelle Jablko as chief ­financial officer and Mr Edwards then tweeting “sexism alive + well in stock­broking?”