A couple more previews of National Australia Bank's strategy briefing on Thursday deal with the bank's productivity agenda and the bank's priorities in Britain.
Both deal, in part, with the bank's options in Britain, where the fluid banking market presents NAB with an opportunity to resolve once again whether it is a buyer or a seller in a market that the group first invested in during the mid 1980s.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that NAB has resolved to take neither course for now.
Rather, NAB will manage with the assets it has (in Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank) for the next couple of years while it determines the intentions of Britain's government (the owner of two niche banks and the majority owner of two high street banks).
In an interview with
Business Spectator on Friday Cameron Clyne, managing director of NAB, said of the bank's options in Britain: "The market is not operating in a normal fashion at the moment because you've got significant nationalisation of RBS and Lloyds HBOS, so it's unclear as to how that market is going to play out and what opportunities might present themselves.
"It's also quite unclear as well as to what the government's aspiration is, as to whether they wish to hold those assets for a period of time or begin to exit those stakes, so we just take the view at the moment that our bank is in good shape. The market's not, but what we just do is just move along and take what opportunities we can."
Clyne said the the Clydesdale and the Yorkshire franchises were "in the best shape it's ever been.
"Now, the disappointing thing is that at the time when we've got our banks in the best shape, and what I mean by that is that the system's well converged, it's operating under a single banking structure albeit with two brands, it's got a capable local management team.
"So at the point where we've got the bank internally operating as well as it's ever been, is the point at which the market is at its worst and that's unfortunate and we're disappointed about that."
Clyne noted that the strategic intentions of Britain's government as a bank investor remained hazy.
"It is unclear what the nationalisation of the UK banking system is going to mean and whether the government is seeking for those banks to quickly return to profitability, so that they can exit their stakes or whether they're in fact potentially long-term players."