{"id":342895,"date":"2025-12-12T10:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/342895\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T10:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:09:10","slug":"former-anz-chief-executive-shayne-elliott-sues-banking-giant-after-losing-13-5m-in-bonuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/342895\/","title":{"rendered":"Former ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott sues banking giant after losing $13.5m in bonuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANZ’s former chief executive Shayne Elliott has launched legal action against the bank, over its decision to slash $13.5 million from his bonus payments after he retired.<\/p>\n

“I have been left with no alternative other than to commence proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales,” he said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed on Thursday.<\/p>\n

‘Grubby’: ANZ faces record penalty for ripping off customers and government<\/a><\/p>\n

ANZ bank agrees to a record penalty with the corporate regulator over its dealings with about 65,000 customers, as well as the federal government.<\/p>\n

ANZ’s decision to dock its former CEO’s bonus in the 2024-25 financial year was part of its focus on “corporate accountability”, which the bank said arose from several scandals that occurred during his tenure.<\/p>\n

Mr Elliott added he is “seeking a declaration that the bank has breached the contract that I had with it”.<\/p>\n

“I will be seeking the earliest possible hearing of my claim before the court and am fully committed to see this process through.”<\/p>\n

ANZ noted the legal action in a statement, saying that under the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s prudential standard, “ANZ is required to design remuneration in a way that encourages prudent risk management”.<\/p>\n

The statement, released today, added that after assessing remuneration outcomes, “some of the long-term variable remuneration due to vest to Mr Elliott would be adjusted downwards to zero for 2025 and 2026”.<\/p>\n

“The board has been considered and very deliberate in its assessment of remuneration outcomes. We are confident in our position and we will defend this matter vigorously,” ANZ chairman Paul O’Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

\"ANZ<\/p>\n

ANZ says it “will defend this matter vigorously”. (AAP: Darren England)<\/p>\n

11 civil actions during Elliott’s tenure<\/p>\n

Mr Elliott said he thought his contract terms “would be honoured” but did add he had accepted some accountability in his time as CEO.<\/p>\n

He also said he had volunteered to forgo some of his bonuses.<\/p>\n

There were 11 civil actions taken by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) against ANZ since 2016.<\/p>\n

Mr Elliott was the bank’s CEO from January 2016 to May 2025.<\/p>\n

In September, ANZ agreed to pay a $240 million fine to ASIC<\/a> for essentially ripping off the government and its customers.<\/p>\n

The bank had mishandled a bond sale in 2023, which potentially cost the federal government $26 million, amid “widespread misconduct”, which affected almost 65,000 of its retail customers.<\/p>\n

At the time, ASIC chair Joe Longo was critical of ANZ and said some of the bank’s actions were “grubby”.<\/p>\n

“Time and time again, ANZ has fallen short,” Mr Longo said.<\/p>\n

Speaking in November, current ANZ CEO Nuno Matos said the failings that led to these regulatory actions were “serious and unacceptable”.<\/p>\n

“As CEO, allow me to be direct \u2014 the bank fell short of what is expected of us and, for that, I offer an unreserved apology,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANZ’s former chief executive Shayne Elliott has launched legal action against the bank, over its decision to slash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5629,9671,8878,190137,22794,43,44,166897,166898,190136,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-342895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-anz","tag-bank","tag-banking","tag-big-banks","tag-bonus","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-paul-osullivan","tag-shayne-elliott","tag-supreme-court-of-new-south-wales","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}