NAB’s top executives hear complaints on customer hotline

Phil Chronican and Mike Baird were among NAB’s top-level execs answering calls on its complaints hotline last month.

NAB revealed in its update that its remediation team has swelled to 950.

NAB acting CEO and incoming chairman Phil Chronican and chief customer officer Mike Baird were among the bank’s top-level executives answering calls on its complaints hotline last month, dealing directly with customers as part of the lender’s attempt to improve its image and overhaul its culture.

The executive leadership team sat with the complaints department and took calls “to build a better understanding of NAB’s impact on customers and NAB’s complaint-handling practices,” the lender revealed in an update on its reform program.

NAB board members, as part of a new customer committee, were also given a glimpse of frontline operations, spending time with the teams managing customer remediation and helping customers dealing with financial hardship.

The board customer committee, established in March and whose members include directors Ann Sherry, Geraldine McBride and Doug McKay, also met with independent advocates to gain a better view of how the bank deals with customers.

Former NSW premier Mike Baird. Picture: Britta Campion

“The full board also participated in workshops on topics of importance to customers, such as financial crime, cyber security and projects under way to improve NAB’s lending processes and systems, including the related customer and banker experiences,” the bank said.

Alongside the other major lenders, NAB is part way through a radical shift of its culture and governance in the wake of scathing evidence heard at the banking royal commission and as demanded by the prudential regulator following a self-assessment the lender conducted late in 2018.

Its progress report details its efforts to address the concerns raised by the royal commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, including the 26 actions it is taking in its bid to deliver structural, procedural and cultural change.

One of those actions centres around remuneration: NAB’s self-assessment found that its pay and performance management “didn’t consistently and visibly sanction” poor behaviour or reward good behaviour.

In an attempt to quell shareholder anger over excessive bonuses, NAB last week confirmed that former chief executive Andrew Thorburn had forfeited all of his deferred variable reward, which was worth up to $21m.

“The board has reviewed and adjusted the variable reward decisions made in 2018 for the majority of the executive team. This resulted in the forfeiting of a significant amount of variable reward previously awarded between 2016 to 2018,” NAB said in its self-assessment update.

The bank is expected to provide further details on the clawback of executive pay when it releases its annual report on Friday.

NAB also revealed in its update that its remediation team has swelled to 950 as it looks to refund customers “more quickly, fairly and consistently”. Since mid-2018 it has refunded $247m to 473,000 customers.

APRA in July forced NAB, ANZ and Westpac to each carry an extra $500m on their balance sheets as it panned them for substandard risk governance following its review of their self-assessments. The financial regulator had already forced CBA to hold an additional $1bn.