By Scott Murdoch
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Former Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Chief Executive Shayne Elliott said on Friday the bank was justified in sacking a former trader accused of breaking ANZ’s code of conduct by sending inappropriate messages at work.
Former ANZ trader Etienne Alexiou is suing ANZ after he was fired in September 2015. He claims he was let go after making whistleblower complaints over the bank’s alleged manipulation of rates used to price borrowing costs in short-term money markets.
ANZ had denied the claims and argued Alexiou’s employment was terminated due to a raft of inappropriate messages he sent on a Bloomberg terminal and from his email while working for the bank.
Elliott, who was replaced in May by HSBC executive Nuno Matos, told the Federal Court in Sydney on Friday the bank’s decision to fire Alexiou was justified. The trial is in its fourth week and has another two weeks to run.
“Mr Alexiou broke the code of conduct blatantly, we had evidence to support that,” Elliott told the Federal Court, adding the correct disciplinary action was taken.
ANZ argued Alexiou had made sexual references, including obscene and disparaging comments about women, referenced strip clubs and made drug references in his messages.
The trial has put a spotlight on the culture of ANZ’s markets business at the time. The court has heard one former senior trading executive was drunk at a bank conference in 2013 and did “donuts” in his Porsche. Elliott said on Friday that executive was disciplined after the event.
ANZ paid a A$50 million ($32.5 million) fine in 2017 after it reached agreement with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to settle claims it had manipulated the Bank Bill Swap Rate (BBSW) between September 2010 and February 2012.
The BBSW is used to price mortgages and floating-rate loans and bonds, and to value interest rate derivatives and swaps.
Alexiou was the head of ANZ’s global balance sheet trading business when he left the bank.
He now runs the Sydney-based Belay Capital and has previously worked at Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank, according to his LinkedIn profile.
His case against ANZ has been running for a decade and he is seeking A$30 million in damages from ANZ, according to local media reports.
($1 = 1.5389 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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