Liam Dann: Banks in the gun as Government and regulators talk tough

David Hisco, last week's high-profile departure as CEO of ANZ bank. Photo / File

If the Aussie banks were hoping their New Zealand subsidiaries would avoid the scrutiny they've had at home, they've been sunk by ANZ's high-profile issues with ex-chief executive David Hisco and its breach of capital-ratio rules.

The Government, Financial Markets Authority and Reserve Bank today released a barrage of banking initiatives in rapid-fire.

It appears to have been a concerted push to address public confidence concerns.

The release of so much news in a six-hour period, in the wake of last week's high-profile departure of Hisco and further unanswered questions about his employment deal, is hardly coincidental.

Where to start?

The Finance Minister announced plans for deposit guarantee which will involve a levy on the banks as part of the Phase II of the Reserve Bank Act review. That would mean a new levy on banks.

He also warned that there may also be scope to give the Reserve Bank "more tools" to regulate bank culture.

Meanwhile RBNZ invoked "Section 95" — a tool it does have in the old Reserve Bank Act — demanding two reports from the ANZ to "provide assurance it is operating in a prudent manner.

And the Reserve Bank and Financial Markets Authority released their joint statement on the bank responses to their earlier Conduct and Culture Report.

Hisco's conduct fell outside the scope of the conduct and culture report.

The report was entirely customer focused. It did deliver on moves to end the hard selling, with all the banks agreeing to end sales incentives for frontline staff and managers.

But the FMA confirmed last week that it could not deal with any issues relating to Hisco's departure.

Given the public expectations, that could have been embarrassing.

Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr headed that off with some pointed words for bank directors.

"Culture comes from the top and boards and senior managers at our financial institutions need to be leading by example," he said.

Both he, and FMA chief Rob Everett, said there was still work to be done and they would be watching closely.

But Orr noted "a much bigger concern and question about the culture being instilled and fostered at governance level".

"Boards are critical in leading the cultural shift that is needed to promote long-term customer outcomes. It is critical to embed new processes and governance systems within banks, and we will be monitoring their progress with this important work."

These comments point clearly to greater scrutiny of the ANZ board as it works through the issues it has had - and the way any similar issues are dealt with by other banks.

In RBNZ's earlier release it talked about using Section 95 to get two reports - one will be on ANZ's current and historic capital adequacy.

ANZ - which presumably now has the correct ratios in place - welcomed the call.

But the call for a second report was less specific.

"It will assess the effectiveness of ANZ New Zealand's Director's Attestation and Assurance framework, focusing on internal governance, risk management and internal controls."

This appears to be where the Reserve Bank has power to look more closely at what has been going on with the ANZ board and Hisco.

If we step back from the specifics of Hisco's transgressions, this looks like what is sometimes described as a culture of entitlement - laissez faire attitude to chief executive perks that now longer plays in the wake of Australia's Hayne Royal Commission.

There have been calls for an NZ Royal Commission and calls for Key to resign as chairman.

In fairness, Key at least appears to be trying to front foot the issues that have emerged in the transition from the old culture to the new.

They predate his appointment as chairman in October 2017.

But as Orr made clear, that doesn't exempt him from scrutiny - or other ANZ board members who have been there much longer.

The buck stops at the top.