NAB breaks ranks on penalty fees stoush 13 November 2014 5:06PM Ian Rogers National Australia Bank, in a quest to restore market leadership for its tired "fair value" agenda, is taking steps to settle a class action over penalty fees.NAB and law firm Maurice Blackburn have lodged an application in the Federal Court "to open and close the class action," a sign they are working to settle the matter.Maurice Blackburn brought the class action on behalf of more than 100,000 customers of most large Australian banks and the local operations of global banks, starting with ANZ in 2010. Financial Redress, a subsidiary of IMF (Australia), is helping to fund the action.The bank on Wednesday said the move was "a first but significant step" towards a potential settlement."NAB is doing this because we believe this is the right thing to do for our customers and our business," chief executive Andrew Thorburn said in a statement.Earlier in 2014, the Federal Court ruled ANZ illegally imposed penalties for late payments on credit cards.A full court ruling on a recent appeal by ANZ against that decision is pending.