By Scott Murdoch

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Former Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Chief Executive Shayne Elliott said on Friday the bank was justified in sacking a former trader accused of breaking ANZ’s code of conduct by sending inappropriate messages at work.

Former ANZ trader Etienne Alexiou is suing ANZ after he was fired in September 2015. He claims he was let go after making whistleblower complaints over the bank’s alleged manipulation of rates used to price borrowing costs in short-term money markets.

ANZ had denied the claims and argued Alexiou’s employment was terminated due to a raft of inappropriate messages he sent on a Bloomberg terminal and from his email while working for the bank.

Elliott, who was replaced in May by HSBC executive Nuno Matos, told the Federal Court in

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