When Cameron Clyne took the helm as CEO of National Australia Bank, in late 2008, the bank had recently reported a profit with a return on equity (on a cash basis) of 14.3 per cent; this was well below the ROE of its most profitable peers at the time, CBA and Westpac.Four years later, NAB's ROE is no better, at 14.2 per cent, in 2012, if not now very much lower than the returns of its leading major bank peer, CBA.This simple scorecard provides some context to the assertion Clyne made at the opening of the bank's strategy briefing yesterday: "We've made significant progress since 2009 and… the strategy we set out in March 2009 was fit for those times, only a few months post the collapse of Lehmann's… that strategy has served us well."Clyne's alternative scorecard centres on the element laid down four years ago to focus on balance sheet strength, and funding and liquidity, alongside a focus on reputation that has laid the groundwork for the recovery in market share and income from personal banking in Australia.A couple of features of the 2009 strategy briefing that may slip from the memory were the decision to dismantle NAB Capital and the merging of MLC with the private wealth business. The successors to these two businesses have performed credibly (in the case of institutional banking) and struggled (in the case of wealth).Clyne's assessment of the progress of the 2009 strategy centred on the progress of the personal bank in Australia, which "has been considerably strengthened", he said. "There was not only a problem losing share in the personal bank, but, I've said on many occasions, it was constraining, potentially, the growth of our business bank by not diversifying our balance sheet and being a strong source of deposits. "If you take the re-base, 2010 personal bank earnings have grown 19 per cent. But, even if you include 2009 before we cut those fees, it's still grown six per cent, and all the income that was cut has been regained. So, you can pick whichever figure you like. The first one is good. The second one is very good. "And none of that has compromised the growth in our market-leading position in [the] business bank, which has continued to strengthen in a difficult operating environment, both in lending and deposits."Clyne also made a virtue of the decision to retain and reshape the UK business. "What I'm particularly pleased about is that this management team did not take the short-cut option of trashing shareholder value and dumping the asset but realised the long term value is actually in trading… out to a position [to] where we can actually get a better outcome for shareholders. "And our divestment options did remain limited. We weren't able to predict the second dip in the economy, nor many others, nor were we able to predict a three-notch rating downgrade."We took the best option available, which is to restructure that business, and the progress is well advanced;