ANZ’s push to repair its risk culture under new leadership is already under pressure, with an independent review warning that limited resources are holding back change. A progress update on the bank’s flagship culture fix programme points to worries around how quickly ANZ can overhaul risk management and accountability frameworks. Regulators are watching closely as the bank tries to prove that its promised reset is more than a slogan.
The review, conducted by consultancy Promontory, examines ANZ’s “people, accountability, customers and trust” programme, a three-year blueprint to rebuild its approach to non-financial risk. The programme emerged after misconduct in ANZ’s Sydney dealing room exposed deep cultural and control weaknesses.
As part of an enforceable undertaking with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, ANZ agreed to seven major remedial actions. Promontory’s first formal assessment, established in November, benchmarks how those commitments are tracking against the regulator’s expectations.
Promontory rates four of the seven agreed actions as “amber”, a signal of concern about the pace or robustness of ANZ’s reforms. Independent oversight points to resourcing as a core friction point and says the bank has not yet devoted enough people or capability to the work.
The amber status means that while frameworks may be designed, implementation and embedding across the organisation are lagging. APRA’s enforceable undertaking structure means these ratings matter because they shape how the regulator views ANZ’s overall risk maturity and supervision needs. Promontory’s reference to resourcing challenges tells the bank that cultural change cannot be done on the cheap.
ANZ is learning that rebuilding trust after non-financial risk failures requires sustained investment in people, systems and governance, not just new slogans and policies. APRA’s involvement and Promontory’s amber ratings show that regulators expect visible, well-resourced execution rather than partial progress. How ANZ responds to the resourcing critique will be a key test of whether its culture reset will deliver durable change.
