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 apologised for the failings and insisted that the senior executive team was held to "one of the most severe demonstrations of accountability observed in my professional life", with four out of nine members no longer with the company.
"They are not in the company because we thought new leadership was needed to weather the remediation and the new journey of the company," he said.
"I need to say the obvious: letting go of approximately 3500 people and impacting them and their families is not something I am proud, is not something I would like to do, not something a human being likes to do," he said.
"It is very, very tough."
ANZ announced in September that 3500 full-time roles and 1000 contractor jobs would be cut to eliminate duplication, work that did not support priorities and sharpen focus in what it described as a "rapidly evolving and highly competitive banking environment".
The bank said there would be a "limited impact" on customer-facing frontline roles, with the majority to be focused at the headquarters in Melbourne.
The cuts are estimated to cost the bank $585 million, contributing to a $1.1 billion hit to the bottom line in its half-year updates.
The historic $240 million fine the bank was handed came after ASIC found it had acted "unconscionably" in dealing with the Australian government while managing a $14 billion bond deal, and incorrectly reporting its bond trading data to the government by overstating the volumes by tens of billions of dollars over almost two years.
The fine has yet to be approved by the federal court.
Matos insisted that the redundancies would help the bank work in a simpler manner, creating an expanded frontline and shrunken headquarters.
He added that he wanted to maintain a "constructive relationship" with the Finance Sector Union, which had been critical of the bank's leadership.
"While the bank congratulates itself for raking in $5.7 billion, thousands of its employees are living with anxiety, burnout and dread," Finance Sector Union national president Wendy Streets said last week.
"We're hearing from people who can't sleep, who've developed panic attacks, and who dread going to work.
"ANZ's profits are up, but so is the human cost. The bank has a culture of uncertainty so severe it's making people sick."
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