Corporate Governance in NAB Bank

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie
Published: 28th April 2017

A review of the company’s corporate governance statement does indicate that the approaches adopted in 2014 are the same with what was obtainable in 2015, following similar formats and standards. This is an indication that the company has a standardized approach in its corporate governance reporting. In line with NAB bank’s 2015 annual report, the company’s board is made up of 10 directors that comprises of:

·         9 independent non-executive directors; and

·         One executive director, who is also the managing director and CEO of the company (NAB Bank, 2015).

Since 2014, a number of changes have been experienced in the composition of the board and they are:

·         Appointment of Mr Peeyush Gupta in November 2014;

·         Retirement of Mr John Thon and Mr Geoff Tomlinson at the 2014 annual general meeting;

·         Retirement of Mr John Waller in July of 2015;

·         The appointment of two non-independent  executive directors: Ms Anne Loveridge (with effect from 15^th of December 2015), and Mr Doug McKay (with effect from 1^st of February 2016), and both are subject to the approval of the regulatory body;

·         The retirement of Mr Michael Chaney with Dr Ken Henry transiting to the chairmanship (which will take effect following the conclusion of the 2015 annual meeting); and

·         The expected retirement of Mr Paul Rizzo at the conclusion of the 2015 annual general meeting (NAB Bank, 2015).

The company adopts ASX corporate governance principles and recommendation as a measure of its performance in that area. NAB Bank did comply with the third edition of the ASX corporate governance principles and recommendation in 2015, with detailed information about their compliance provided in the appendix 4G of the bank’s annual report; which is cross-reference checklist used to determine how the company has performed in line with established guidelines for corporate governance.

The group also has a whistleblower protection program used to confidentially report unacceptable and undesirable conducts across the company. This system is established for enabling disclosures to be made in order to protect the officer making such disclosure by the employees of the company, or in case where the matter is highly sensitive and the officers do believe that is more appropriate for such to be directed to the audit committee.

In line with its guidelines, directors are expected to adequately prepare for, and attend the board meetings and meetings of the board committees. It is also expected that directors should attend all site visits (NAB Bank, 2014 and 2015).  The report of directors is used to set up the number of board meetings and attendance of the directors, and members of the board are expected to meet with key regulators across different jurisdictions over the course of the year in order to ensure that the company applies measures that are in line with updated industrial standards.

References

NAB Bank (2014). Annual Financial Report. Available at: https://www.nab.com.au/content/dam/nabrwd/About-Us/2014-annual-financial-report.pdf [Accessed on: 13^th-10-2016].

NAB Bank (2015). Annual Financial Report. Available at: https://www.nab.com.au/content/dam/nabrwd/About-Us/shareholder%20centre/documents/annual-financial-report-2015.pdf [Accessed on: 13^th-10-2016].