NAB fulfils business bank's cost targets
National Australia Bank is to relocate hundreds of support staff working alongside business bankers to seven sites in five mainland capital cities, but no job losses are planned.The bank has outlined a restructure proposal to the Finance Sector Union that introduces "fulfilment centres". These will be at Mount Waverley and Docklands in Melbourne, Marrickville and Parramatta in Sydney, Cannon Hill in Brisbane, Adelaide south and Perth city.Support staff working with business bankers in most regional areas won't be affected, the FSU said, based on a bank briefing.Business bankers will remain working at their present base but will have to rely on staff in the new fulfilment centres for help. They and the support staff will, in turn, make use of more automated tools to complete their tasks.Support staff will have to apply for jobs in the new centres.Implementation of the restructure will commence in Victoria and will proceed at four- to six-week intervals.NAB says on its website that it employs around 5000 business bankers and serves more than 700,000 clients.The bank may need to handle the change in approach to servicing carefully.The regular survey by DBM Consultants shows a slight easing in the level of satisfaction of both micro-business and medium-sized business customers, though small business customers report no recent change in satisfaction levels.DBM has also found the net promoter score for NAB business banking has been falling in recent months.