ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos admitted it was "very tough" for him to cut 3500 jobs under his restructuring plan, before adding that half of the senior executive leadership had also been let go.

Australia's fourth-biggest bank is trying to reverse course after a series of costly scandals , and has signalled that mass redundancies were necessary to ensure future success.

The company is also under fire for the mistreatment of thousands of customers, including deceased ones, and lying to the federal government.

Appearing at the House economics committee's review into the "big four" banks in Canberra today, Matos was grilled about whether it was fair that thousands were losing their jobs in the restructuring, while executives only lost their bonuses over the scandals.

Matos apolog

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