National Australia Bank’s profits have surged to $2.58billion, despite being found to have regularly falsified signatures on death beneficiary forms at the banking royal commission.
NAB announced its financial results for the first half of the financial year on Thursday, and statutory net profit rose 1.5 per cent to $2.58billion.
Net operating income rose 2.5 per cent to $9.09billion, and cash profit dropped 0.2 per cent after restructuring costs were taken out.
Cash earnings fell by 16 per cent compared to the same time last year, reaching $2.76billion as expenses rose on restructuring costs.
The results come after NAB financial planners were found to have acted in a negligent way by the banking royal commission.
National Australia Bank’s profits have surged to $2.58billion, despite being found to have regularly falsified signatures on death beneficiary forms at the banking royal commission (Pictured: chief executive Andrew Thorburn)
The commission heard that it was considered ‘acceptable’, ‘common practice’ and ‘a social norm’ to falsify witness signatures on forms that set out what the client would like to do with their superannuation savings when they die.
It could potentially render invalid the final wishes of 2520 National Australia Bank customers,
The bank has said it will sell wealth management brand MLC.
NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn said the decision to sell was unrelated to the banking royal commission.
‘We continue to learn from our mistakes and respond by making changes to be better for our customers,’ he said.
‘There’s a lot of buffeting at the moment and I don’t think we entirely have perspective, so we would not make a decision that’s this major based on a couple of weeks of evidence at the royal commission,’ Mr Thorburn said.
‘Respecting the royal commission’s importance, I think this is much, much bigger.’
About 325 NAB staff, 204 of them financial advisers, were found to have failed to correctly witness their clients’ death beneficiary forms.
Addressing the inquiry on, senior NAB executive Andrew Hagger said the staff thought they were taking a shortcut in the interests of the client – despite it being clear on the form that witnesses had to be present when it was signed.
NAB announced its financial results for the first half of the financial year on Thursday, and statutory net profit rose 1.5 per cent to $2.58billion
One adviser, Bradley Meyn, even went so far as to forge a couple’s initials on the forms, which Mr Hagger admitted crossed the line.
The commission heard Mr Meyn was sacked in December 2016, though NAB failed to inform the Australian Securities and Investments Commission until last June.
It was further found that an internal report prepared for the bank’s chief risk officer in 2015 flagged a breakdown in planners’ competency to judge ‘right and wrong’ – a full year before the scandal was ultimately exposed.
‘I think a social norm had crept in and become entrenched,’ he said.
NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn said the decision to sell wealth management company MLC was unrelated to the banking royal commission