Gender-free sledge part of the cut and thrust of banking

Thin-skinned ANZ has played the sexist card on Angus Aitken.

ANZ’s new chief financial officer, Michelle Jablko.

Not everything is sexism.

Hiring strippers to celebrate successful day’s trade at the bank? Sexism.

Business lunch at the lap-dancing club? Sexism.

Referring to the appointment of a new CFO as “one of the dumber appointments I have seen”?

Not sexism. No, not even if she’s female.

See, sexism is something very specific. It’s the treatment of women as if they were second-class citizens. It’s disrespecting their talent and achievements on the basis of gender.

What stockbroker Angus Aitken did in his now famous, highly amusing note to clients — he criticised the appointment of Michelle Jablko as the ANZ’s new CFO — was actually the opposite of sexism.

At the risk of running foul of the speech police, in dissing Jablko, Angus was actually treating her just like any other investment banker.

He didn’t think she was up to the job and said so. Didn’t say: because she’s a woman. Didn’t say: this business was so much better before women arrived. Didn’t say: hope she doesn’t need a few days off every month (which, unbelievably, is still said about women in the workplace.) Or: hopefully she’ll soon get pregnant. Or: at least she looks good in a dress.

He simply said it was a dumb decision, based on his analysis of some of her earlier trades (see: Slater and Gordon.)

Of course, that’s not all Aitken said. His note (fun reading, just for the mighty tone) said: “Sell ANZ.”

It also said: “I reckon ANZ is a five year plus turnaround.”

And he wrote: “Another reason not to own this stock.”

It stung. How could it not?

Still, what happened next is just bizarre. One of the bank’s spinners, Paul Edwards, pinned the note to a tweet, saying: “Sexism alive and well in stockbroking?”

Sexism?

Jablko’s gender was never even mentioned.

For reasons that are truly hard to fathom, the bank’s CEO, Shayne Elliott, then “liked” the tweet (it’s by the by, but why are bank CEOs on Twitter? What’s the upside? It’s like wading in a sewer. But I digress.)

Aitken got in trouble from his employer, Bell Potter, and he’s now left the company.

He says his reputation is in ruins — ruins, I tell you! — and his solicitor has briefed a $10,000-a-day barrister, Bruce McClintock, to handle the defamation case.

“I am determined to pursue all available legal remedies against those involved at ANZ for the loss of both my good reputation and career as a stockbroker,’’ he said, in yet another note.

So, what was the bank thinking? Well, it’s not that hard to figure out. The ANZ is having an annus horribilis.

The share price is slumping. The exposure to Asia is a worry. It’s fighting an expensive, ugly case hinged on racism in Melbourne, plus another featuring lap dancers and gold coin in Sydney.

And so when Aitken put his note out — sell ANZ — it was just one more blow. The bank panicked, took a turn to what it hoped was the high road, and dug itself in even deeper, because look, Aitken may be rude, and he may even be wrong, but sexist? No.