01 November 2012 7:02am

NAB’s financial results released yesterday not only revealed the extent to which the bank is exposed to its troubled UK operations but also reflect the bank’s significant and ongoing investment in technology.

Although NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne said the bank did not capitalise software to the degree its peers did, in 2011/12 the value of its capitalised software rose to A$1.4 billion, compared to $1.25 billion the previous year.

To set that in context – in 2004 the combined capitalised value of the four major banks’ software was only fractionally higher, at $1.48...