ANZ bank will pay $240m in penalties , the biggest fine issued by the financial regulator Asic to date, to settle four investigations into widespread misconduct that put public funds at risk, and affected tens of thousands of customers.

The bank has admitted to engaging in unconscionable conduct when raising money for the federal government to finance spending in critical areas such as health, welfare, education, infrastructure and defence.

In addition, the regulator said ANZ failed to respond to hundreds of customer hardship notices, made misleading statements about its savings interest rates, and failed to refund fees charged to thousands of dead customers.

Asic said the misconduct had occurred over many years and had been marked by ANZ’s “significant failure to manage non-financ

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