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The NAB has not yet contacted all its customers given loans they may not be able to afford, the Royal Commission into financial services was told today.
In November last year, the NAB announced that 10 staff had been dismissed, 10 had left and that disciplinary action was taken against 32 others over suspect home loans in NSW and Victoria.
The Royal Commission yesterday heard evidence of NAB managers receiving envelopes stuffed with cash as part of an alleged ring to bring in lots of home loans using falsified applications.
Today the commission referred to a report by KPMG about the bank’s introducer program, a referral program which rewarded non-bank employees with cash for bringing in new loan business.
Introducers, among them a gym owner and a tailor, would refer customers to the bank for loans in return for commissions, according to Anthony Waldron, NAB’s executive general manager of broker partnerships, in his second day of questioning at the commission.
KPMG, brought in to investigate the suspect loans, found about $50 million in loans with question marks over whether the borrowers had the financial capacity to service them.
The bank then started its own investigation of the suspected fraud and the bankers who got bonuses for writing the loans and in November 2015 appointed a taskforce into the problems.
The NAB has so far contacted 71 of the 1360 customers who may have been affected. Some 26 had been offered remediation.
Waldron told the commission of changes made after the problems were discovered.
The rate at which bonuses were paid was reduced when certain revenue levels had been reached.
“It became a more balanced approach,” he said.
He was also frustrated that a remediation program had taken too long.
“We expect it will take us through to November of this year to complete the full process,” he said.
