National Australia Bank has given a commitment to overhaul its complaints handling process after paying out millions of dollars in compensation to customers who received inappropriate financial advice.
According to a report in
The Australian, NAB chief Andrew Thorburn told a business lunch in Melbourne that the bank would co-operate with any judicial inquiry.
He said the bank intended to build greater independence into its customer complaints process and whistleblower procedures.
Leaked documents published in Fairfax Media last week revealed that NAB paid between A$10 million and $15 million in compensation to 750 customers who received bad advice over the past five years.
The bank has dismissed 37 financial planners for misconduct. The misconduct included forgery and doctoring of customer files.
Fairfax Media reported that Thorburn would probably have to face a Senate inquiry into the matter. The chairman of the Senate Economics References Committee, Sam Dastyari, said the committee was writing to NAB to ask its executives to appear next week.
In his
speech yesterday, Thorburn went on to defend the bank, saying it had moved quickly to address cases of misconduct that had been raised with it.