National Australia Bank in crosshairs as inquiry targets pension funds

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – National Australia Bank will compensate thousands of pension fund customers who had paid for advice they did not receive, Australia’s financial-sector inquiry heard yesterday as it turned its sights on the pension industry.

The first day of hearings into Australia’s A$2.6 trillion ($1.9 trillion) pension system heard that a unit of NAB, the country’s fourth-largest bank, had charged customers “plan service fees” for advice they did not receive.

The misconduct occurred between 2012 and 2017 and affected more than 220,000 customers, barrister assisting the inquiry, Michael Hodge, said. The NAB subsidiary had promised to pay A$87 million ($64.3 million) in compensation, he added.

Under questioning, Paul Carter, a former executive general manager for NAB’s wealth division, said that in 2016 management had considered whether it could keep the money that had been misappropriated from customers.

“You looked at that time at various justifications for why NAB might not need to refund that money to customers?” Mr Hodge asked.

To which Mr Carter replied: “I would rephrase that to say we were conducting an investigation to understand the issues and make sure the right decision was ultimately made for customers.”

The powerful Royal Commission inquiry has already roiled the banking and funds-management industry and now it is the turn of Australia’s pension fund sector to answer questions about alleged misconduct and poor performance.

AMP Ltd, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, IOOF Ltd, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and Westpac Banking Corp have also charged thousands of customers fees for advice that was not provided, Mr Hodge said.

In his opening remarks at the start of hearings into the retirement system that are expected to last two weeks, Mr Hodge said Australian pension funds were “surrounded by temptation” to put profits ahead of people.

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