Eight-and-a-half months after his appointment as National Australia Bank chief executive, Andrew Irvine has finally put his strategic line in the sand. And it’s an ambitious one.

The improvements in NAB’s operational and financial performance since its brush with crisis following the banking royal commission have been impressive and deserve to be celebrated, Irvine says. NAB’s stock is up 150 per cent rise since it bottomed in May 2020, in the wake of a capital raising by his predecessor, the legendary Ross McEwan.