NAB: 'We didn’t get it right the first time'

On Friday, NAB responded to reports in Fairfax Media regarding the major bank's wealth business.

“Over the past five years, we have compensated over 750 customers and paid out between $10 and $15 million in compensation in situations where we didn’t get it right the first time,” NAB Wealth group executive Andrew Hagger said.

“We have over 1.7 million customers and clearly we want our customers to get the right advice and good advice every time,” Mr Hagger said. “But where we have problems we will face into them and fix them."

NAB said its values are built on respect for customers and employees and “doing the right thing”.

“When we identify or are made aware of issues in our business, we will always work to fix them,” Mr Hagger said.

“Our customers and our regulators hold us to high standards, and so they should.

“They deserve a high standard and we are constantly improving our systems and processes to deliver that high standard.

“Where we have problems we face into them. When this has meant providing compensation to our customers who have received bad advice, we have done so,” Mr Hagger said.

Following the release of the Senate Economics References Committee inquiry in June last year, NAB commissioned a report into its wealth business to review and determine whether it needed to change its standards for customers, employees and advisers.

"We were transparent with this information, with our senior management team, the NAB principal board and our regulators," Mr Hagger said.

NAB added that if issues arise within the business, employees are encouraged to use the bank's “whistleblower process”.

The lender also urged any unsatisfied customers to reach out to the regulators.