A ‘sad, important’ day, says NAB’s outgoing CEO Andrew Thorburn

After 48 hours of “deep reflection”, NAB’s outgoing chief says he hopes the bank will go on to be great without him.

Andrew Thorburn outside his home. Picture: Jay Town

When asked last night on a telephone hook-up if there was anything in particular in Commissioner Kenneth Hayne’s final report that triggered his decision to stand down as chief executive of National Australia Bank, Andrew Thorburn responded with a question.

“Have you seen page four hundred and eleven?” he sadly laughed.

It was the same question journalists were whispering to each other just days earlier on Monday as they trawled through Hayne’s tome. “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,” Hayne said.

A few paragraphs nestled in 1000-page were enough to seal the fate of two of the country’s most senior bankers, and by yesterday, the same company that two years earlier brought that nation’s media together to announce the sacking of 6000 NAB employees would be declaring that two more would follow. The chairman and chief executive would be going.

“While today is primarily a sad day, I accept that it’s an important one,” Thorburn told the dozens of reporters hooked up on the phone call. “I look forward to this company going on and being great into the future.”

Despite convincing the big four banks to reluctantly establish the royal commission, Henry has now become one of its most high-profile victims.

“I wasn’t anticipating something of that nature,” Henry said of page 411. But for many who observed Henry’s gruff performance in the commission witness stand in November, such a slapdown wasn’t entirely unexpected.

“Have you lost your job because you woke up on the wrong side of the bed?” asked one journalist.

“Maybe I did hop out of the bed on the wrong side,” Henry said. “I’ve relived that performance many times in my mind. I really wish I had performed much better. I certainly do. I’m quite upset about that.”

Henry and Thorburn were both sad to be leaving the business, and in the manner in which it had to happen. There was no anger on the call, only resignation. Thorburn even thanked reporters for the tone of their questions. “People on the call — I knew names — but didn’t know voices,” he said.

After 48 hours of “deep reflection” the duo decided it was best to go. Although Hayne noted on page 411 his concern to read in The Australian, “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”, Henry said the decision to leave NAB couldn’t be attributed to one newspaper article, one single event, or one night of restless sleep before taking the stand.

“I do not believe that the views he formed about NAB could be explained simply by the claim that I got out of the wrong side of the bed,” Henry said.