CARTEL CLAIMS
ANOTHER major scandal has rocked the Australian banking sector with the shock revelation of criminal charges pending against the ANZ Banking Group, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.
In a statement yesterday, ANZ Bank was forced to disclose, for the first time, to the Australian Stock Exchange that an extensive investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Securities Investments Commission had been under way and had now led to criminal charges pending over alleged cartel conduct.
The new scandal comes on the last day of hearings in Melbourne by the royal commission in which it was suggested Australia’s big banks may face charges of misleading or deceptive conduct.
According to the banks involved, the criminal cartel proceedings centre on a $3 billion issue of ANZ shares and the placement of $2.5 billion of those shares to large institutional investors.
Despite an announcement to the market that the placement to institutions had been completed, in reality one-third of those shares were unwanted. Unbeknown to the wider markets, these unwanted shares were forced to be purchased by the underwriters.
The knowledge that the big institutional investors did not think the placement was good enough value to buy them all may have influenced the decision of smaller investors to buy ANZ shares.
Earlier yesterday, in closing the final week of royal commission hearings in Melbourne, the commission was told that commissioner Kenneth Hayne could make adverse findings against the nation’s biggest lenders for engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct, unconscionable conduct and breaching responsible lending laws.