Clawing back millions from top bosses isn’t easy but one bank just did it

November 10, 2025 — 3.57pm

Not since former Qantas boss Alan Joyce was stripped of $9 million in bonus pay have we witnessed a former chief executive’s hip pocket denuded like ANZ’s former boss Shayne Elliott.

His bonus payment has been ransacked to the tune of $13.5 million as a result of a series of regulatory failures under his watch that cost the bank $240 million in fines and unmeasurable damage to its reputation.

In doing so, the ANZ has created a new high watermark for executive remuneration consequences.

Former ANZ retail boss Maile Carnegie (left), former chief executive Shayne Elliot, and Mark Whelan, ANZ’s current head of institutional bank (right), have all lost their bonuses. Credit: Matt Willis

Such an outcome might have the hallmarks of public relations gold for accountability, but the ANZ’s board has endured intense pressure from shareholders that had been unhappy with incumbent pay deals and hit the bank with a shareholder first strike last year on its remuneration report.

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It faces those shareholders again in December, so the bank needed to make a gesture that was unforgettably big.

Across the broader community and the bank’s customer base there will be few tears shed for these pay punishments, given the limited tolerance for the eye-watering levels of remuneration granted to executives of many large companies.

But the bonus pain didn’t stop with Elliott – it rolled downhill to another layer of ANZ’s senior management some of which have left the bank since Elliott’s departure.

Even the new chief executive Nuno Matos, whose time post dated the bank’s misconduct issues, forfeited his short-term bonus as a measure of leading by example. That gesture is certainly one for the books.

Meanwhile, Maile Carnegie, former boss of the bank’s retail business who retired in July, has been denied a $4.4 million bonus.

Under her watch, ANZ’s retail division found itself under the microscope a number of times. There was a $40 million fine for the bank’s failure to pay bonus interest on certain online saver accounts and displaying inaccurate fees, and a $40 million fine for breaching its obligations in how it handled customer hardship.

On top of that, ANZ agreed to pay a further $35 million in fines due to breaches in how it handled deceased estates. The corporate regulator said between 2019 and 2023, ANZ failed to refund fees charged to thousands of dead customers.

ANZ’s chief financial officer Farhan Faruqi, chief risk officer Kevin Korbally and group executive for institutional banking Mark Whelan have all had their bonuses for the last financial year scratched.

Gerard Florian, who retired from his role as head of ANZ’s technology division in August, was similarly denied his $1.78 million bonus.

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While the executive pay purge was announced by the bank’s board, it feels like the appointment of Matos and his cultural overhaul would have played a major part in running the broom across ANZ.

Matos has already demonstrated this in plans to cut the workforce by 3500 and reduce contractors by 1000. He has taken a scorched earth approach to the business and shown a sense of robust confidence around restoring profit growth and improving non-financial risk.

He barely has his feet under the desk, so the underwhelming result that included a flat underlying profit and a 10 per cent decline in statutory earnings (which include one-off charges) is outside his control.

Rather this is the Matos starting line, which will begin with a large cost-cutting exercise and followed by measures to improve revenue.

He talks a big game, despite the realities of operating in a highly competitive retail banking and business banking market. The $32 million in executive bonuses that have been cancelled is a handy way to contribute to cost savings and a handy way to signal that the bank has turned a cultural new leaf.

But Matos has his work cut out for him. Big announcements on remuneration and staff cuts are the stuff of headlines, but the real grind starts now.

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