Former trader drops ANZ claim

A banker who alleged a riotous ANZ culture has withdrawn his $30m unfair dismissal claim against the bank.

ANZ has revealed former trader Etienne Alexiou has withdrawn a $30 million legal action against the bank for unfair dismissal, resolving one of a series of damaging cases.

ANZ today 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action initiated by employees who were dismissed in late 2015 for serious breaches of our Code of Conduct has been withdrawn,” said ANZ chief risk officer Nigel Williams.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 unfair dismissal claims emerged in January against ANZ in the Federal Court after being 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 rife among the upper echelons of the bank and particularly on the global markets desk, including 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).

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

While ANZ sacked three of the seven traders — including Mr Alexiou — caught up in the ASIC investigation, the bank in April reinstated four of the employees after an internal review found no wrongdoing.

ANZ, Westpac and NAB have vowed to fight ASIC’s claims in court.

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.