ANZ's paid its top brass little more than half of what its most ambitious and confident executives might have expected to earn over the last year, and a possible portend of turnover in the C suite.
The average variable remuneration over the year to September 2018 for current "disclosed executives" is 53 per cent of maximum and 78 per cent of target, the remuneration section of ANZ annual report discloses.
"This is significantly below target and in line with the material reduction in the variable remuneration pool" at ANZ, the bank said.
It noted "every executive is below target and there is significant differentiation at an individual level ranging between 60 per cent to 91 per cent of target.
"The different outcomes reflect the relative performance of the different areas/individuals [and these] demonstrate the 'at risk' nature of VR, and demonstrate a clear link between performance and reward at both an ANZ and individual level for the 2018 financial year."
Only David Hisco, who heads ANZ in New Zealand, and Maile Carnegie, the digital guru, received a bonus more or less in line with that paid in 2017, while Shayne Elliott took a pay cut in the order of A$1 million.
All members of ANZ's board will have to ration their spending, taking a cut in director's fees next year of 20 per cent.
This is "an indication of the board's understanding of its accountability, [and] in addition to the bank's efforts to identify and fix the causes of our failures," the chair, David Gonski, wrote in the foreword to the annual report.