NPS collapses for NAB

National Australia Bank's net promoter score has dived across four priority segments, the bank's full year results reveal.

The average NPS for NAB fell to minus 16 over the last year - by no means the worst in the industry following multiple dramas over reputation, but pretty poor for the one bank that makes more noise than its peers about this measure.

UBank - a secondary brand - is an outlier, with an NPS of plus 18.

Among small business the NAB NPS was minus 21 at September 2018. NAB led its peers on this score in early 2018.

Among home owners the score was minus 19, the worst of all four big banks.

The bank's P&L for the year to September 2018 is a very mixed bag; net operating income up just 0.5 per cent to A$18 billion. Then amid a blizzard of restructuring and remediation costs and a six per cent surge in operating expenses, NAB still produced a lift of five per cent in net profit over the full year to $5.55 billion.

Cash earnings fell 14 per cent to $5.7 billion, with the segment profit from Consumer Banking and Wealth down six per cent to $1.5 billion.

CEO Andrew Thorburn insisted that the group's restructuring plans - intended to reduce headcount by 6000 FTEs by 2020 - is on track.

Costs savings of $320 million were realised this financial year out of more than $1 billion targeted by 2020. The bank said it was: "Targeting broadly flat expense growth for FY19 and FY20, excluding large notable expenses."

In 2018 they included remediation costs of $360 million, "split between revenue ($249 million) and expenses ($111 million).

The planned demerger, listing or sale of MLC seems to be heading for a trade sale.

The bank promised a detailed briefing on MLC in early 2019.