NAB executives were slammed for destroying shareholder value and for losing its lead as Australia’s biggest bank by market capitalisation at its annual general meeting in Melbourne this morning.
One shareholder during the question and answer session didn’t hold back his disappointment with the bank’s failure to prevent issues that resulted in billions of dollars wiped out in market capitalisation.
In the lead up to the financial services Royal Commission, the shareholder said there was something “amiss” in the way the board ran the bank, as reflected in failed ventures in the UK and the share trading scandal among other examples.
The shareholder, who has been a NAB customer for about 50 years, went on to describe the leaders as the “unacceptable face of capitalism.”
One reason why he stayed with NAB for so long is because of the frontline staff or bank tellers who have taken care of him as a customer for decades. Ironically, these are the employees senior management are “laying off” as a result of the mess the business is in, he said.
Another shareholder suggested senior managers should do more to reach out and connect with aggrieved customers rather than rely on net promoter scores figures.
NAB chair Ken Henry was then criticised for saying it will take 10 years for NAB to change the bank’s culture at the Royal Commission.
This should only take 10 months, the shareholder said, adding if it takes 10 years then there is “something is wrong with the board and senior management.”
In response to counsel assisting Rowena Orr’s question about what NAB is doing to embed new culture, Henry listed initiatives that include closely monitoring non-compliance and net promoter score across 700 branches.
“It could be 10 years. It could be. I hope not. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised. That would not be unusual for organisations that seek to embed challenge in cultures,” he said at the time.
In his opening address, Henry flagged that the board estimates more than 80% of the votes cast will be ‘against’ the remuneration report.
Chief executive Andrew Thorburn said in his opening statement that NAB has completed its refunds of plan service fees, and the issue affecting more than 304,000 customers has been closed.
“We have also agreed on a remediation methodology with ASIC that will see NAB Financial Planning refund adviser service fees to those customers who didn’t get the services they paid for. That is starting this week, and is to be completed in 2019,” Thorburn said.
Thorburn will take annual leave from December 21, and will return to respond to the Royal Commission’s final report to be released on 1 February 2019. He will then take a month-long break as part of his long-service leave entitlement.
NAB shares traded at $23.32 per share at publication time. This time last year, it traded at about $30.
