Hayne unleashes on NAB boss and chairman

The royal commission has slammed National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Thorburn and its chairman, former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, for not learning the lessons of the past.

In a searing passage in his final report, Commissioner Kenneth Hayne spared no feelings in assessing the evidence of both men in the seventh round of hearings of the commission.

NAB chairman Ken Henry leaving the royal commission hearings in Melbourne late last year. Credit: Wayne Taylor

Commissioner Hayne said NAB stood apart from the three other major banks in terms of showing contrition and accepting its role in the bank’s failings.

NAB is one of several banks to be referred for possible criminal charges over its handling of superannuation and financial services customers, particularly in regard to the fees for no service scandal.

Mr Thorburn recently returned from an extended break, a move that raised eyebrows after the bank's horror year that culminated in the largest ever protest vote against the remuneration report of a top 20 Australian company.

“Having heard from both the CEO, Mr Thorburn, and the chair, Dr Henry, I am not as confident as I would wish to be that the lessons of the past have been learned,” Commissioner Hayne said.

Overall, my fear – that there may be a wide gap between the public face NAB seeks to show and what it does in practice – remains.

Kenneth Hayne

“More particularly, I was not persuaded that NAB is willing to accept the necessary responsibility for deciding, for itself, what is the right thing to do, and then having its staff act accordingly,” he said.

Commissioner Hayne gave Dr Henry a special lashing following his evidence at the royal commission which was largely regarded as dismissive.

“I thought it telling that Dr Henry seemed unwilling to accept any criticism of how the board had dealt with some issues,” Commissioner Hayne.

He also pointed to Mr Thorburn’s reluctance to accept the bank’s active role in charging fees for no service.

“I thought it telling that Mr Thorburn treated all issues of fees for no service as nothing more than carelessness combined with system deficiencies when the total amount to be repaid by NAB and NULIS on this account is likely to be more than $100 million,” he said.

“ I thought it telling that in the very week that NAB’s CEO and chair were to give evidence before the commission, one of its staff should be emailing bankers urging them to sell at least five mortgages each before Christmas.”

“Overall, my fear – that there may be a wide gap between the public face NAB seeks to show and what it does in practice – remains.”

Asked about the comments after the release of the report Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he would not go into individual cases.

"What I would say to all those cases, they are matters for shareholders and for boards," he said. "They’re not matters for me to specifically comment."

In a statement to the ASX, NAB said it was considering the report.