National Australia Bank may be working on measures to reduce its cost base. On Wednesday, The Australian newspaper reported a taskforce was working under Peter Coad, one of the group executives, to devise cost-cutting initiatives that could be unveiled in March.Coad is the executive responsible for NAB's Specialised Group Assets, the toxic assets (such as collateralised loan obligations) acquired ahead of the 2008 financial crisis.NAB already has the lowest costs of any of it major bank peers on an expense-to-asset basis, according to analysis by KPMG of the sector's 2012 financial reports.The bank also reported the lowest growth in costs of any of its peers last year, at 0.3 per cent over a full year.NAB cut staff in its personal banking division in Australia, by 460, over the year to September 2012. The bank also cut staff, by 351, in the business bank, and by 132 in its wealth business.On the other hand, staff numbers may have built up in key customer service lines over the last year or so.Geoff Derrick, assistant national secretary of the Finance Sector Union, said NAB had provided "more staff to meet customer needs and their growth strategy."Derrick predicted the mooted cost cutting would hurt NAB's service standards."The so-called 'win today, win tomorrow' can be gone today, gone tomorrow."In October, NAB's chief executive, Cameron Clyne, told an investor briefing: "We've always maintained the cost discipline in the event that revenue... [doesn't] arrive. And we've also maintained the focus on the technology measurement… to get to those settings. "We're actually extremely pleased in is that we've had the cost discipline and the investments in technology. Now we'd obviously like to see revenue rebound more quickly, but in the absence of it I think we feel very comfortable that we haven't just relied on that and we've had that investment in cost discipline and technology. So we're obviously looking at a lower revenue growth environment. I think we're well set for it."Brian Walsh, NAB's general manager for media, wrote in an email: "We have previously signalled that we will provide the market with an update in March on our technology, looking at how we maximise the benefits of our technology and reduce complexity for our customers."NAB, meanwhile, is closing its subsidiary Clydesdale Bank International, which is based in the tax haven of Guernsey. Nineteen staff will be made redundant, according to the BBC.Clydesdale Bank International is now closed to new business and will run down its existing customer accounts before it closes, which will not be before 2014.