New broom at NAB

National Australia Bank included one financial decision and announced a refreshed senior management team as part of its presentations for yesterday's strategy day.

The bank will follow ANZ's lead and cut the dividend by 25 per cent, a step that will retain about $600 million in capital a year.

The management changes include shifting Adam Bennett from Bank of New Zealand to take over as chief information officer, replacing Michele Tredenick who may be looking for a new job, either at NAB or elsewhere.

Bennett was general manager of banking delivery services at BNZ (where NAB CEO Cameron Clyne was CEO for 18 months).

Andrew Thorburn will take responsibility for managing NAB's banking businesses in Asia and North America on top of his job as CEO of BNZ.

In Australia Joseph Healy will manage a wider business banking division and Lisa Gray will manage personal banking.

Rick Sawyers, recently CEO of nabCapital in the US, will take over as head of the shrunken wholesale bank.

John Hooper will shift from nabCapital to a new job as executive director for NAB in Europe and reporting to Lynne Peacock.

There are two more new faces on the executive committee. One is Gavin Slater as group executive for group business services and the second is Michaela Healy as group executive group governance, a high level management role that does not feature at other banks.

Half the 13 member executive committee are new or recent appointments.

One more change is that Mark Joiner, the bank's finance director, will join the board.