NAB’s Thorburn fronts parliamentary inquiry on banking

NAB chief Andrew Thorburn has defended the bank’s interest rates, but admitted customer results have lacked at times.

NAB CEO Andrew Thorburn speaks during public hearing at Parliament House. Picture: AAP.

National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Thorburn has echoed similar sentiments to the leaders of peers ANZ and Commonwealth Bank in telling a parliamentary inquiry his bank had made mistakes but remained a crucial cog in the economy.

Mr Thorburn also defended moves by the banks to not pass on recent Reserve Bank rate cuts in full.

“Our mortgage and other products are not…directly influenced by the cash rate,” he said.

“We now operate in a low rate environment and other factors have far greater influence.”

Mr Thorburn was fronting up in Canberra following the grilling of Commonwealth Bank boss Ian Narev on Tuesday and ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott yesterday, with the heads of National Australia Bank and Westpac due to appear tomorrow.

“This is an important conversation,” he said.

“For bankers trust is the currency that matters most.

“There have been some issues – including at NAB – that we cannot be proud of. We are committed to facing these to ensure we are a stronger bank and a stronger profession.”

He added NAB had not always delivered results to customers as well as “it could or should have”.

Pressed on the firing of 41 financial planners for serious conduct breaches of conduct, Mr Thorburn was forced to defend the lack of punishment for senior executives as no such employees were terminated.

“That is a significant number [of breaches] and we acknowledged that, and said it wasn’t good enough,” he said.

“[But] it was not a systemic issue.

“I think we’ve learnt [and] we need to get this right.”