NAB’s boss of retail quits

Former NSW premier Baird takes Hagger’s role

NAB has tasked former NSW premier Mike Baird with leading its retail unit after consumer boss Andrew Hagger decided to leave the bank following his mauling at the financial services royal commission.

Mr Baird (pictured), who surprisingly quit as NSW premier in January 2017 and has led NAB’s institutional bank since April the same year, will become chief customer officer for consumer banking.

He will replace Mr Hagger, who last month was criticised by counsel assisting the royal commission for showing “a disrespect for the role of the regulator and a disregard for the gravity of the events in question” over his response to the fees-for-no-service scandal.

Mr Hagger, who has been with NAB for 10 years and part of the lender’s executive team for eight, admitted to “failures” during his tenure.

“I take accountability for what has occurred on my watch, and accept that alongside successes were failures, including instances where we did not act with the pace required,” Mr Hagger said in a statement yesterday. “I leave NAB with confidence that we are creating a better bank.”

It is understood Mr Hagger had harboured ambitions of becoming chief executive but had been considering his future even before his royal commission appearance.

Royal commission lawyers last month called out Mr Hagger for saying he had “left the door open” for regulators to ask questions about fees-forno-service remediation, rather than offering full disclosure about the true scale of compensation.

NAB and the Commonwealth Bank may have committed civil – and possibly criminal – offences, barristers assisting said.

They said NAB’s superannuation trustees MLC and NULIS may have engaged in misconduct and breaches of corporate and superannuation laws by charging fees when no advice service was provided.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is already investigating “suspected offending” by the NAB group over fees for no service.

NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn said the separation of the bank’s wealth business from consumer operations to prepare for a demerger and IPO was a factor in Mr Hagger’s decision to leave.

“With the recent bringing together of the wealth businesses ... to prepare for separation from NAB, Andrew Hagger believes now is the right time to leave,” Mr Thorburn said.