Corporate Governance and Business Ethics: A Case Study of ANZ

Governance and
business ethics

INTRODUCTION
• The matters of corporate governance and moral ethics govern every
individual and entity.
• The ethical principles are applicable cross various industries and
professions, and therefore are all pervasive (Chell et. al, 2016).
• The case study of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited
was in news when the enquiries were initiated by the Banking Royal
Commission.
• Ethical principles are needed to be applied to various business
practices and functions to address the needs of various stakeholders.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ORGANISATION
• The organisation ANZ is one of the chief four banks of Australia and
has its business operations scattered in 34 markets globally (ANZ,
2019).
• The organisation is chiefly engaged in international banking and
financial services and has its headquarters located at Melbourne.
• The organisation was established as The Bank of Australasia under
the Royal charter in the 1830s and began its operations in London
(ANZ, 2019).
• The year 1951 witnessed the Bank of Australasia merging with the
Union Bank of Australia to form the ANZ.

ANZ AND ROYAL BANKING COMMISSION
ENQUIRIES
• A number of enquiries were initiated by the Royal Banking
Commission on the ethical conduct and business practices towards the
chief banks of Australia.
• Among 268 submissions in the area of the agricultural finance, 32
cases were against the organisation ANZ bank, related to Landmark
acquisition in year 2010 (Caldwell, 2018).
• The year 2013 witnessed the ANZ bank regarding 1050 Landmark
accounts approximately to be high risk or impaired.
• The bank was quoted as stating to take the necessary steps to curb
the losses caused by these accounts.