ANZ review sees senior departures

Mike Smith

The ANZ Banking Group has released the long-awaited report flowing from its Securities Lending Review, and while the report does not directly address the question of the collapse of Opes Prime, it does point to weaknesses within the bank’s management oversight and breaches of its code of conduct.

The code of conduct breaches will see two employees leaving the company and the bank’s chief executive officer, Mike Smith, said a number of executives who had already left the institutional division would also have been subject to employment sanctions had they remained at ANZ.

The release of the review outcome came at the same time as Smith announced the appointment of a new chief risk officer and a new acting group managing director, institutional division.

Chris Page has been appointed chief risk officer, replacing David Stephen, and Alex Thursby has been appointed the acting group managing director, institutional division, replacing Peter Hodgson.

Smith said that the review committee had found weaknesses in the management and oversight of the equity finance business within ANZ’s security lending unit.

“Taken together, this meant that ANZ did not adequately identify and manage the range of risks which arose from the operation of a business of this nature,” he said.

“In reviewing this issue, it’s clear the findings have wider implications for ANZ’s management of other non-traditional businesses, particularly in our institutional division,” Smith said. “We have developed a comprehensive 13-point remediation plan to address all the management, control and accountability issues identified in the report.”