National Australia Bank is setting up a shared services entity to service the group's regional banking business in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Asia, the
Herald Sun reported.
Initially the purpose of the new subsidiary, referred to for now as Serv Co, is to provide a platform to lower costs and lift productivity across the bank's own businesses.
Serv Co may also prove useful as the kernel of a new entity to undertake common processing for rival banks.
Several such entities exist in discrete business segments, including Cardlink (formed in the 1970s to help manage Bankcard and used as the vehicle to establish BPay in the 1990s), Cash Services Australia (through which banks pooled management of cash distribution, and formed in 2000) and Vipro (set up in 2004 and which handles cheque processing for Commonwealth, NAB and Westpac but not ANZ).
More ambitious attempts to negotiate terms for a shared services utility for banking have foundered in the past. One attempt, seven or eight years, ago petered out as it became clear the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would not clear the plan.
Elsewhere on NAB the Financial Review's Boss magazine today overviews the approach to executive education of the most senior brass and engages in some speculation as to the identity of the internal candidates to become CEO.
NAB's been shipping select brass (and seemingly all the most senior executives) off for short courses of what the magazine terms corporate psychotherapy at Insead, a posh business school in France.
If the interviews and the narrative in the magazine are any guide, fewer top executives than you might think want to be CEO, or even want another promotion.
NAB reports its March 2008 half-year profit this morning.