STRENGTHENING COMPLIANCE
Compliance with ANZ's codes of conducts and relevant policies are referenced in all employee contracts and confidential advice on ANZ policies, practices and management systems is available via our hotline, People Assist.
Breaches of operational, regulatory and compliance requirements are tracked using an online reporting system and case management, with corrective action closely monitored.
In 2007 there were 417 serious breaches of the ANZ Code of Conduct (282 for Australia and 135 for New Zealand). These mainly related to breaches of 'Abiding By The Law And This Code' and more specifically for breaching the ANZ Email and Internet Policy.
This year, we conducted a detailed review of ANZ's compliance with US trade sanction policy following the identification of a small number of trade finance transactions with parties from US sanctioned countries.
Key actions taken by ANZ in response to the review include curtailing these financial transactions, strengthening management and compliance procedures and upgrading automatic sanction filters. ANZ made full disclosures to all relevant regulators and, at the time of this report's publication, discussions were continuing with US authorities.
ADDRESSING KEY CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
ANZ's Board and executives access a range of systems and sources to assist them in anticipating, understanding and managing emerging issues and risks. The following Group-wide material corporate responsibility issues for ANZ and our stakeholders have been identified and reported upon in this document:
Putting our customers first
- Responsible lending and supporting customers in difficulty
- Implementing fairer fees
- Managing the social and environmental risks in our lending decisions
Leading and inspiring our people
- Engaging a global workforce
- Developing women in leadership
- Providing flexibility for a changing workforce
- Managing the opportunities and impacts of offshoring
Earning community trust
- Working with our community to improve financial literacy and inclusion
- Making progress on small loans
- Improving Indigenous financial literacy and employment opportunities
Managing our environmental impact and supply chain
- Responding to climate change challenges and opportunities
- Creating more environmentally-friendly workplaces
- Influencing our supply chain
* The People Charter will be launched in 2008
