National Australia Bank
550790
225066019
2008-07-11T18:47:38Z
60.240.113.52
Added an s to operate to make it proper.
{{Infobox_Company |
company_name = National Australia Bank Limited|
company_logo = [[Image:NabLogo.PNG|150px|center|Corporate Logo]]|
company_type = [[Public limited company|Public]] ({{asx|NAB}})|
company_slogan = ''a little word for a big life'' |
foundation = 23 June [[1893]]|
location = {{flagicon|Australia}} [[Melbourne]], [[Australia]]|
key_people = <li>[[Editing John Stewart (Australian banker)|John Stewart]] <small>([[Chief executive officer|CEO]])</small> <li>[[Michael Chaney (Australian businessman)|Michael Chaney]] <small>([[Chairman]])</small> |
num_employees = 39,048 [http://www.nabgroup.com/vgnmedia/downld/HalfYearResults2007-Section2-SelectedFinancialData.pdf]|
revenue = {{profit}} $32 billion [[AUD]] ([[2006]])|
net_income = {{profit}} $3.928 billion [[AUD]] ([[2006]])|
industry = [[Financial services]] |
products = Banking, financial and related services|
revenue = |
homepage = [http://www.nabgroup.com/ www.nabgroup.com]|
}}
'''National Australia Bank''' (or '''NAB''') is the largest financial institution and bank in Australia in terms of market capitalisation. It is one of the world's top 30 financial services companies with total assets of A$457 billion as at 30 September 2006. It operates across 10 countries serving 6 million banking customers and over 2.3 million wealth management customers.<ref>http://www.nabcapital.com/aboutus/aboutus.aspx nabCapital About Us (05 February 2008)</ref>
== Core business ==
The National Australia Bank Group is organised around four key businesses: Australia - NAB and [[MLC Limited|MLC]] brands; United Kingdom - Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank brands; New Zealand - Bank of New Zealand brand; and nabCapital, formerly Institutional Markets & Services, which operates internationally.
== History ==
In 1893, National Bank Limited was formed. Up until 1st October 1981 it continued to trade as The National Bank of Australasia Limited, only after the merger with the '''Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited''' did it become known as National Australia Bank.
=== National Bank of Australasia Limited (NBA) ===
In 1858 Alexander Gibb, a Melbourne gentleman, enlisted Andrew Cruickshank, a local merchant and pastoralist, to raise the capital to establish National Bank of Australasia with headquarters in [[Melbourne]]. Cruickshank became its first chairman while Gibbs left after being passed over for the position of General Manager. The bank opened its first branch in [[South Australia]] the same year.
Expansion to other Australian states followed, with branches opening in [[Tasmania]] (1859), [[Western Australia]] (1866), [[New South Wales]] (1885) and finally [[Queensland]] (1920).
An early branch established in [[Mauritius]] (1859) closed within a year, but a [[London]] branch (1864), established to handle financing and payment for Australian exports of wool, gold and other commodities, and imports to Australia, was more successful.
National Bank of Australasia was one of many banks that closed its doors during the banking crisis of 1893. Director [[John Grice]] was active in the crisis, from which the bank re-emerged as a public limited company, incorporated on [[23 June]] [[1893]].
For the next half century, growth was stimulated by a number of acquisitions:
* Colonial Bank of Australasia (est. 1856) in 1918, bringing additional branches in [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]] and New South Wales.
* Bank of Queensland in 1922, with branches in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The Bank of Queensland was itself result of the merger in 1917 of Royal Bank of Queensland (est. 1886) and Bank of North Queensland (est. 1888).
* Queensland National Bank (est. 1872) in 1948, with branches in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
* Ballarat Banking Company (est. 1865) in 1955
The bank opened a representative office in Tokyo in 1946, later upgraded to a branch in 1985. The bank’s overseas interest expanded more rapidly in the 1970’s. It opened a branch in Singapore in 1971, and representative offices in Jakarta (1973) and Hong Kong (1974). It took [[minority interest]]s in merchant banks in these locations at the same time, and in Hong Kong established a 50-50 joint venture merchant bank with Mitsubishi Bank and Trust, but withdrew from these arrangements in 1984. Its first US presence was established in 1977 with a branch and an agency in Los Angeles that closed in 1993.
=== The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited (CBC) ===
The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney began operations on 1 November 1834 and in 1848 was incorporated by an Act of the New South Wales Parliament. Thomas Barker (born 1799 London, England, died 1875 Bringelly, New South Wales), a manufacturer, engineer, politician, landowner and philanthropist was a notable director and chairman.
The CBC grew to service the expanding pastoral and farming industries of the then Colony of New South Wales. <ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.superbrands.com.au/BrandDetails.aspx?id=51|title= Superbrands. NAB|date=12 June 2008|publisher=Superbrands Australia}}</ref>
=== 1980-2000 merger and rapid overseas expansion ===
In 1981, National Bank of Australasia Limited merged with The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited to form National Commercial Banking Corporation of Australia Limited and subsequently changed its name to National Australia Bank Limited (NAB).
The expanded financial base of the merged entity triggered significant offshore expansion over ensuing years. Representative offices were established in [[Beijing]] (1982), [[Chicago]] (branch 1982), [[Dallas]] (1983), [[Seoul]] (1983, upgraded to a branch in 1990), [[San Francisco]] (1984), [[Kuala Lumpur]] (1984), [[Athens]] (1984, closed 1989), Frankfurt (1985, closed 1992), [[Atlanta]] (1986), Bangkok (1986), [[Taipei]] (1986 upgraded to branch 1990), * 1988: NAB opened a representative office in [[Shanghai]] (1988, closed 1990), [[Houston]] (1989) and [[New Delhi]] (1989).
In 1987, NAB bought [[Clydesdale Bank]] ([[Scotland]]) and [[Northern Bank]] ([[Northern Ireland]] and [[Republic of Ireland]]) from [[Midland Bank]]. It rebranded Northern Bank branches in the Republic of Ireland to [[National Irish Bank]] and changed both banks' logos from that of the Midland Bank. In 1990, NAB bought [[Yorkshire Bank]] ([[England and Wales]]).
Further acquisitions followed - [[Bank of New Zealand]] in 1992, which at the time had about a 26% market share in the New Zealand market, and [[Michigan National Bank]] (MNB) in 1995. NAB had earlier rationalized its operations in the US and closed its offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Francisco in 1991.
This period of rapid expansion through acquisition concluded with the purchases in 1997 of HomeSide Lending, a leading US mortgage originator and servicer based in [[Florida]], and most significantly, the acquisition in 2000 of [[MLC Limited]] (and related MLC entities) for $4.56bn, one of the biggest mergers in Australian corporate history.
NAB encountered a difficult period in the period 2000-2005. In 2000, NAB sold Michigan National Bank to [[ABN AMRO]], then in 2001 sold HomeSide’s operating assets for US$1.9b to [[Washington Mutual]], the largest US savings and loan company, as well as the mortgage unit's loan-servicing technology and operating platform.
=== HomeSide ===
NAB booked two write-downs associated with HomeSide. First, in July 2001, NAB had a $450 million write down of the value of its capitalized mortgage servicing rights (CMSRs) during the quarter ending June 30, 2001, and was the result of exceptionally high mortgage refinance volumes which lowered the value of the CMSRs, combined with a more challenging capital markets environment in which to hedge interest rate risk. This was followed shortly by a second write-down reported in September totalling $1.75 billion; this second write-down consisted of US$400 million from an incorrect interest rate assumption embedded in the mortgage servicing rights valuation model, US$760 million from changed assumptions in the model flowing from the continued unprecedented uncertainty and turbulence in the mortgage servicing market, and US$590 million from writing off of the goodwill. In total, NAB booked $2.2 billion in losses due to HomeSide.
[[Image:Victoria Harbour Offices at Night.jpg|thumb|300px|right|NAB Headquarters at Melbourne Docklands]]
===Foreign currency options fraud===
In 2004, NAB discovered that as a result of unauthorized spot trades on its foreign currency options desk, losses totalling $A360 million had been covered up. Investigations by [[Price Waterhouse Coopers]] and the [[Australian Prudential Regulation Authority]] highlighted a need for cultural change. The losses were a result of a failed speculative position where the traders falsified profits to trigger bonuses over a number of years. In order to actually generate the reported profits, the traders speculated on the US dollar, betting that it would rise against the Australian dollar and other currencies. This incident led to the resignations of CEO Frank Cicutto and Chairman Charles Allen.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1036288.htm|title= Frank Cicutto Resigns as NAB boss|publisher=ABC The World Today|date=2 Feb 2004}}</ref> In 2006, the two traders most heavily involved in the fictitious trades, David Bullen and Vincent Ficarra, were sentenced to 44 and 28 months jail respectively.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/asic.nsf/byheadline/06-221+Former+NAB+foreign+currency+options+traders+sentenced?openDocument|title= Former NAB foreign currency options traders sentenced|date=4 July 2006|publisher=Australian Securities and Investments Commission}}</ref>
===Tax evasion and customer overcharging in Ireland===
The Irish subsidiary of the bank, [[National Irish Bank]] was the subject of a six-year Inquiry carried out by Inspectors appointed by the Irish High Court. They established that National Irish Bank had engaged in overcharging its own customers and tax evasion schemes prior to 1998<ref> {{cite web|url= http://www.odce.ie/_fileupload/publications/NIB_Summary.pdf |title = Summary of Report of the Investigation into the affairs of National Irish Bank Ltd and National Irish Financial Services Limited |coauthors= Mr Justice John Blayney and Mr Tom Grace FCA |date= [[2004-07-30]] | publisher= The High Court }}</ref>. Mr Justice Peter Kelly, an Irish High Court judge commented following publication of the Report "The edifice of banking is built on a foundation of trust. On the Inspectors findings there was a breach of trust. The operation was carried out over a period of years in a deliberate fashion"<ref>{{cite news | url = http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/6599623?view=Eircomnet | title = Ex-NIB executive barred for 10 years by court | publisher = Eircom.net | date = [[2005-10-27]] }}</ref>. The [[Director of Corporate Enforcement]] subsequently applied to the High Court to have 9 senior managers barred from being an officer of any company<ref>{{cite press release | url = http://www.odce.ie/_fileupload/new/NIB_Disqualification_Applications_Hearing50728.doc | publisher = Director of Corporate Enforcement | title = ODCE seeks nine disqualifications arising from National Irish Bank / National Irish Bank Financial Services Report | date = [[2005-08-28]] }}</ref>.
===Post 2005===
[[Image:Nab tower Melb.jpg|thumb|left|NAB House, Melbourne]]
In 2005, NAB announced a cut of 2,000 Australian jobs as part of a global cost-cutting program with the intention of cutting around 4,200 positions – about 10.5% of its total workforce globally. <ref>{{cite web|title=NAB mixes job cuts with record profits|publisher=The Age (Melbourne)|date=11 May 2005|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/Business/NAB-mixes-job-cuts-with-record-profits/2005/05/11/1115584998575.html}}</ref>
It began to outsource back office positions offshore, beginning with a pilot with 23 jobs from the accounts payable department in Melbourne going to [[Bangalore, India]] in an agreement with [[Accenture]]. <ref>{{cite web|title=NAB to export 23 jobs to India|date=26 September 2005|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald|url= http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/nab-to-export-23-jobs-to-india/2005/09/26/1127586800351.html}}</ref> Later that year, it sold [[Northern Bank]] and [[National Irish Bank]] to the Danish [[Danske Bank]]. Over 200 additional jobs had been sent offshore by 2006.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Financial Sector Union|title=Spotlight on National Australia Bank|url=http://www.bankcheck.net.au/nab_bank.html}}</ref>
By 2006, NAB had turned its fortunes around, reporting an industry record $4.3 billion profit and winning two local Bank of the Year awards. It also had a major reform which included the refurbishment of all of its branches, and the replacement of signage in and around National branches and buildings, being changed from 'National' to 'nab'.
[[Image:National-nab.jpg|right|thumb|320px|National Australia Bank transition logo 2006-early 2007]]
NAB launched a new division STAR Direct & Alliances to develop and operate businesses serving customers through non-branch channels in 2007.
In May 2007 NAB announced that it would delist from the [[New York Stock Exchange]]<ref>{{cite web|title=National Australia Bank Earnings|date=9 May 2007|publisher=CNBC|url=http://www.cnbc.com/id/18477329/}}</ref>, and this took place in Aug 2007. NAB delisted from the London and Tokyo exchanges in 2006.
In March 2008 NAB announced that it would send maintenance and support for some core banking applications to India through an offshoring arrangement with [[Infosys]] and [[Satyam]], affecting another 260 employees. <ref>{{cite web|publisher=The Australian|title=NAB sends jobs offshore|url=http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23313704-15306,00.html|date=4 Mar 2008|accessdate=2008-03-04}}</ref>
==Sponsorship==
The National Australia Bank is a prominent supporter of [[Australian rules football]], both at grassroots and elite level. It sponsors [[Auskick]], an initiative to improve young footballers, as well as the [[NAB Cup]] (an [[Australian Football League]] pre-season competition), the [[NAB AFL Rising Star]] award; and the [[National Draft|AFL National Draft]]. Other significant sporting sponsorships include the [[Socceroos]], and the [[2006 Commonwealth Games]]. Support is also given towards community group volunteers around Australia. In recent years, NAB has provided financial support and relief to drought affected farmers. From 2008-2010 NAB is sponsoring the [[South Sydney Rabbitohs]].
==Customer Relationship Management==
NAB was recognized as an early adopter and leader in CRM ([[Customer Relationship Management]]). It is a large user of the [[Siebel Systems|Siebel]] CRM software and developed and implemented its "National Leads" analytical CRM system to support its sales force in identifying relevant customer sales & service opportunities. <ref>{{cite web|title=National Australia Bank receives global recognition in Customer Relationship Management|date=10 December 2003|publisher=NAB media release|url=http://www.national.com.au/About_Us/0,,39413,00.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=NAB's track record a winner|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald|date=22 Feb 2005|url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/02/21/1108834695957.html}}</ref>
In 2006, NAB revamped its CRM system having slipped behind other banks investing in CRM platforms using cutting-edge technology.<ref> {{cite web|title=CRM adopter plays catch-up|date=19 September 2006|publisher = The Australian|url=http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,20435270%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html?from=rss}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Bank's CRM revamp hits half-way mark|publisher=Computerworld|date=16 March 2006|url= http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;981862231}}</ref>
NAB also deployed its National Leads system to New Zealand and United Kingdom. In 2006, NAB was named the winner of the IFS/Cap Gemini Financial Innovation awards for its National Leads system. <ref>{{cite web|title=ifs/Capgemini Financial Innovation Awards 2006|publisher=ifs School of Finance|url=http://www.ifslearning.com/events/financial_innovation_awards/fia_winners_2006.cfm}}</ref>
== References ==
{{reflist|2}}
== External links ==
* [http://www.nabgroup.com/ NAB Group] - Official NAB Corporate Site
* [http://www.nab.com.au/ National Australia Bank] - Australia Region
* [http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2006/snapshots/918.html Fortune Global 500 listing]
* [http://www.gstock.com/quote/nab.html National Australia Bank stock chart]
*
* [http://www.cbcbank.com.au CBC Officers Club]
{{NABGroup}}
{{S&P/ASX 50}}
[[Category:Banks of Australia]]
[[Category:Companies established in 1858]]
[[de:National Australia Bank]]
[[ja:ナショナルオーストラリア銀行]]