NAB CEO ANdrew Irvine
Acknowledging, for once, that Commonwealth Bank is the bigger business bank, National Australia Bank says that a priority focus for the bank “is how we close the gap with CBA in business deposits.”
Andrew Irvine, the NAB CEO, told an investor briefing for its half-year results that “we have not been a good deposit gathering bank over the decades.
“And that’s something that when I joined the bank, [former CEO] Ross [McEwan] and I wanted to address.
“If you look at the difference between our ROE and CBA’s ROE [in business banking], I put the entire delta down to deposits.
“Our focus is on being a better transaction bank.
“We still don’t have the loan to deposit mix in business banking with [Commonwealth Bank].
“This is a hard, long-term thing to change.”
Over the six months to March 2025 NAB’s group net profit fell by 3 per cent to $3.41 billion, compared with March 2024.
Cash earnings in Business and Private Banking fell one per cent to $1.6 billion.
Earnings in Personal Banking increased 4 per cent to $576 million.