Royal Commission uncovers link to NAB boardroom
A selection of National Australia Bank's Board members from 2015-2016 may well find themselves fronting the Royal Commission into banking industry misconduct after counsel assisting Rowena Orr was handed newly discovered minutes of a meeting with NAB's chief risk officer and the Board's risk committee, dated 4 November 2015.On Tuesday, the commission was told half a dozen NAB branch managers in western Sydney were part of a group gaming the bank's home loan "introducer program", allegedly making up fake payslips, fake ID and fake Medicare cards and charging $2800 in bribes for each customer for home loans and personal loans. The bank staff were then rewarded and promoted on the basis of home loans and other lending, as a result of "smashing their targets".In Tuesday's proceedings, Rowena Orr pressed Anthony Waldron, NAB's executive general manager for broker partnerships, as to when the National Australia Bank board was made aware of breaches of the bank's responsible lending obligations - notably dishonest conduct by bank managers in several of their western Sydney branches. Waldron insisted the board was told on 15 December 2015, while the decision to formally advise ASIC was not taken until February.Yesterday morning, with Waldron taking the stand once more to explain the fate of mortgage brokers who were not dismissed for misconduct, Orr had a more targeted line of questioning in mind.Orr held a document that was handed to her by NAB's counsel that morning: the minutes of the principal board risk committee meeting of NAB, held on 4 November 2015.Waldron said he was not at that meeting and had not seen the document before. After being handed a copy, he confirmed the minutes showed that the group chief risk officer briefed the committee on an issue that had been "very recently identified" relating to potentially fraudulent payments to introducers and "noted that further detail would be provided in December." "The principal board risk committee noted the update." Orr was relentless: "Now, this relates to the line of questioning I asked you yesterday about when the board was notified of these incidents. ... Do you regard this as a notification to the board?" Waldron: "Yes, I would say there is some form of notification to the board, yes."Orr: "Why did you not refer to this in your witness statement, Mr Waldron?"Waldron: "I was unaware of it."Orr then told the hearing that she had been informed by NAB's counsel that although there was a notice to produce served on NAB with a deadline of 13 February 2018, these minutes were not delivered to the Commission.Orr said that in respect of the incidents referred to in NAB's submissions - in this instance, the misconduct disclosed at its suburban branches - NAB was required to produce:"... any reports to the CEO, executive committee or board, or to the chief risk officer in respect of the incidents...."Waldron said he was unable to offer any explanation for why NAB did not produce this document as required. "This is the first time I've seen the