NAB pain builds bad debt buffer

James Eyers and Aleks Vickovich

Apr 27, 2020 – 6.28pm

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Already a subscriber?

National Australia Bank has provided the first insight into the damage the COVID-19 pandemic will do to the major banks, taking the axe to its dividend and announcing a $3.5 billion capital raising to ensure it can play its role as a shock absorber for the economy as the crisis unfolds.

NAB shareholders are taking a savage blow as the bank seeks to protect itself from rising loan losses from COVID-19. The interim dividend has been slashed to 30¢ a share, down from 83¢ last year, the lowest half-yearly shareholder return NAB has paid since December 1993.

James Eyers writes on banking, finance, payments, regulation and emerging technologies. Based in Sydney, he is a former legal and investment banking editor at the AFR and has been a business journalist for more than 20 years.

Aleks Vickovich leads the Financial Review's coverage of wealth management, specialising in the business and regulation of investment markets, financial advice and superannuation.