A major Australian bank will cough up $240 million in fines for "widespread misconduct" as it vows to hold executives accountable.

ANZ has admitted to failing to respond to hundreds of notices about customer hardship, making false and misleading statements about its savings interest rates and failing to pay those amounts to customers.

Two bonus interest issues, one dating back to 2013, affected 251,000 customers.

The financial services watchdog also said the Big Four bank acted "unconscionably" while managing a $14 billion bond deal in services with the federal government after incorrectly reporting bond trading data and overstating volumes by tens of billions of dollars for years.

Even the dead were not spared, with ANZ failing to refund fees to thousands of deceased customers and not

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