In recent comments to the Sydney Morning Herald, ANZ's Mark Whelan, Head of Institutional Lending, admitted to the bank's slow progress in addressing non-financial risks over the past five years.
Whelan said that ANZ is working to improve its corporate governance by early next year. However, while he acknowledged regulators' concerns, especially regarding its bond trading scandal, Whelan denied that there is a widespread cultural issue within the bank. "[The regulators] are not happy with us, and therefore we have to accept it, but then we need to understand exactly what it is and why we're falling down," Whelan said. "We already have a good idea of it in some areas, and particularly in non-financial risk area," he added, saying that the bank would “just lean into it and fix it.”
In August, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) announced that it had increased the operational risk capital add-on applied to ANZ to $750 million in response to persistent problems with the bank's non-financial risk management capabilities. In response, ANZ is working to embed long-term improvements, Whelan stated. As a part of these efforts, the bank is also revising its code of conduct to reinforce a "speak-up culture." "We'll get to a point where I think we're in a reasonable shape," Whelan said.
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