ANZ NZ CEO Antonia Watson gets bonus while Australian executives docked for regulatory breaches

ANZ NZ chief executive Antonia Watson. Photo / Mark Mitchell

ANZ’s New Zealand chief executive was one of the bank’s few bosses to get a short-term bonus after executives at the Australian parent were pinged for regulatory breaches.

Antonia Watson received short-term variable remuneration of A$692,000 ($801,303). Her total statutory remuneration was A$2.58m ($2.987m) in the year to September 2025, up from A$2.56m ($2.97m) in the prior year.

That was driven by a higher cash salary and higher non-monetary benefits.

But former ANZ Group CEO Shayne Elliott, a New Zealander, was docked his short-term bonus and had to forfeit equity entitlements valued at A$13.49m ($15.63m).

Elliot stepped down as CEO in May this year.

Holly Kramer, ANZ Group chair of the people and culture committee, said in the annual report that it had been a challenging year for ANZ where it had had to “confront the impact of issues from non-financial risk (NFR) shortcomings”.

The bank reached a settlement deal with Australian regulator Asic (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) and a court enforceable undertaking with Apra (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority) as well as facing findings from independent reviews into the root causes of its shortcomings.

“From a remuneration outcome perspective, the board carefully weighed up a range of factors in its deliberations, including the reputational and financial impacts of a number of matters, referred to throughout the 2025 Remuneration Report as ‘NFR Matters’.

On top of that the bank’s full year profit was down 10%.

New CEO Nuno Matos, who was not at the bank during the period of its issues, decided to forfeit his short-term incentive to “lead by example” and as a “reflection of his commitment to the ANZ team”.

The board decided that its other Australian current and former executives would get no short-term bonuses.

Former CEO Elliot and three former executives who left the bank during the year were not eligible for 2026 long term grants.

So the board determined that some or all of the equity due to vest in November and December would be forfeited.

“In the case of our former CEO, who was ultimately accountable for the various NFR Matters, and the former group executive Australia retail, who was accountable for shortcomings in retail, the board also forfeited the calendar year 2026 equity on foot.”

ANZ NZ grew its net profit after tax by 21% in the year to September to a record $2.53 billion.

The country’s largest bank attributed much of the jump to the hedging it did to manage its interest rate and foreign exchange risk.

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