Australia's ANZ Bank fires 200 employees for bad behaviour, irregularities

Australia's ANZ Bank has fired 200 employees, including senior executives, for bad banking behaviour, including irregularities, bank CEO Shayne Elliot said on Friday.

Elliot, who heads of one of the four major banks of Australia, was testifying at a parliamentary committee hearing two weeks after the Royal Commission's interim report on the financial sector was released.

The report concluded that banks and other financial institutions maltreated clients due to greed, Efe news reported.

"In the past, the ANZ has not focused sufficiently on formally holding executives to account for failures that harm customers," said Elliot, and reported the sacking of employees in the last few months.

The Royal Commission, established in late 2017, said banks have ignored "basic standards of honesty" and indulged in practices like charging clients -- sometimes deceased -- for services not offered, manipulating information, making false statements to get clients and intimidating disadvantaged clients.

Elliot accepted the conduct was shameful and counterproductive and said the ANZ has now made even senior executives accountable for misconduct.

Earlier, Commonwealth Bank Chief Executive Matt Comyn and Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer appeared before the commission. While National Australia Bank CEO Andrew Thorburn will appear on October 19.

The commission will continue investigating the conduct of financial institutions and conducting public hearings for its final report, which is expected to be finished by February 1, 2019.