NAB Punishes on Lending Scandal
NAB said it has fired 20 bankers in Australia over home equity loans. The move is part of a two-year push to clean up with dodgy lending practices.
«What occurred was unacceptable,» NAB's Andrew Hagger said in a statement. He is the Australian's bank's customer chief in consumer banking and wealth management.
Hagger is apologizing for thousands of home loans beginning in 2013 that turned out to be faulty or incomplete. As a result, NAB is sacking 20 bankers in New South Wales and Victoria if they have not already left, while another 32 bankers have had their pay docked or other punitive measures.
NAB said it diagnosed the issue two years ago, and advised Australia's corporate watchdog ASIC several months after. «We have investigated this matter thoroughly, and, as we have always said, whenever we find issues we will investigate them, fix them, and hold people to account – and we did,» said Hagger (pictured at left).
The bank didn't disclose the financial fallout from the investigation. UBS equity analyst Jonathan Mott has estimated that Australia's banks hold more than A$500 billion worth of «liar loan» mortgages, or ones with factual inaccuracies or incompleteness.
