While Phil Chronican yesterday moved swiftly to distance his company from the controversial observations of David Murray this week, not all of the NAB chief's messaging would have been welcomed by ASIC.In his first appearance as NAB's CEO in Canberra, Chronican told the house economics committee that he did not believe the bank or its executives acted dishonestly in the handling of the 'fees for no service' scandal.Commissioner Kenneth Hayne in his final report raised the prospect that some financial services providers may have engaged in dishonest conduct in relation to charging clients for advice they never received."It wasn't my belief that anyone intentionally engaged in dishonest conduct," Chronican told the committee."I'm not yet aware of anyone intentionally pursuing those issues at NAB, but obviously if ASIC finds that then we will have to deal with that."In September last year ASIC launched a civil action in the Federal Court against NAB over the fees for no service practices.While that matter is now the subject of a mediation process ordered by the court, the bank also faces possible criminal proceedings over its management of the scandal.Under intense questioning from Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite, Chronican gave a technical defence of NAB's conduct on the fee for no service issue, indicating it was flawed but not illegal."I believe that actually the contracts in the product that we're talking about in the case (the civil case brought by ASIC) the offer of advice is what was promised," he said."The plan service fee was a fee that was charged to members of these funds on the basis that they had access to an adviser - there was no formal contractual commitment to provide a statement of advice."NAB has since refunded all the fees collected from customers who were linked to advisers.Thistlethwaite then asked Chronican why the bank refunded the fees to customers when it didn't believe its conduct had been illegal."I think there's a big difference between giving customers their money back and accepting something is illegal," he told the committee."We refund customers fees and charges often even when we are perfectly entitled to collect them."Chronican's comments appear to send a firm signal to ASIC that the bank plans to defend itself against any criminal proceedings over the 'fee for no service' scandal.That will probably annoy ASIC chairman James Shipton who yesterday called on financial services providers to genuinely engage in the process of cleaning up errant cultural practices in the industry."Financial institutions must embrace and embed in everything they do the fairness imperative for there to be meaningful cultural change in the industry," Shipton said."Financial institutions must respond responsibly to the challenge and not, as we have seen in some segments, with resistance and reluctance to the job we as a conduct regulator are expected to do."On the matter of fees for no service, it seems that Chronican is now talking from the same song-sheet as his predecessor, Andrew Thorburn.It looks like NAB is poised to dig in for a protracted legal stoush if