Whelan's CEO prospects hurt by latest ANZ scandal
While older than incumbent Shayne Elliott, Mark Whelan's impressive turnaround of ANZ's oft-maligned institutional bank had given him an inside run to be the next CEO. But the past is back to haunt him.
For at least the last couple of years, the standout division in ANZ’s results has been one previously considered a drag on the business — the historically high-risk, low-return institutional division. Under the leadership of Mark Whelan it has been turned around to such an extent it is now investors’ choice as a significant point of differentiation and value.
Whelan’s star has risen with his division. Already a very solid performer, with strong stints in Asia and running the commercial bank and then retail for ANZ, the performance of insto has lifted him in the betting to be ANZ’s next CEO — even though he is older than the incumbent Shayne Elliott.
But his legacy is now under a dark cloud. Not because of the work he has actually done — improving the credit quality of customers, building a hugely valuable transaction business, simplifying the structure — but because of what it seems he hasn’t done. And that’s fix the governance and culture in the bank’s markets operation where it undertakes bond trading.
The revelation in The Australian Financial Review that ANZ’s markets division “overstated the value of government bonds it traded by more than $50 billion in 12 months alone, boosting its prospects of winning lucrative mandates issuing Commonwealth debts”, has been followed up with analysis of what increasingly looks like several years of questionable operations.
