National Australia Bank (NAB) has revealed plans to eliminate up to 2,500 jobs, or roughly 6% of its staff by FY 2027.
About 1,500 of those job losses will occur before the end of the current calendar year. In addition, the lender said it would materially reduce its reliance on consultants and external contractors.
"These changes are expected to improve outcomes for customers by reducing duplication and speeding up decision making," Andrew Irvine, NAB group chief executive officer, said in a statement on Tuesday. "We are particularly focused on reducing the size of corporate functions.
"Our ambition and strategy remain unchanged. We will improve productivity, risk outcomes and execution to be a simpler and more efficient bank," the CEO continued. "These actions will help to make NAB a stronger bank, better placed to navigate risks and opportunities arising from more challenging economic conditions, increasing customer expectations, competitive intensity and rapid technological change."
It is unclear whether the restructure will impact broker roles.
NAB did not respond to requests for additional comment in time for publication.
However, in his statement, Irvine added: "There will be no material impact to customer-facing banking roles. We have also deliberately made deeper changes to senior management positions, which will broaden leadership responsibilities across the bank. This will simplify work between teams and improve cross-functional processes with clearer roles, priorities and accountabilities for our colleagues."
The restructure is part of the major bank's broader strategy to simplify operations while creating capacity to invest in growth initiatives, such as its proprietary home lending business, business banking and deposit growth, NAB said.
The lender said it expects to incur a $300 million pre-tax restructure charge in FY 2027, related to redundancy, redeployment and organisational redesign costs.
Meanwhile, NAB continues to lean into its proprietary channels. In May, the bank reported that its own proprietary lending channel accounted for 47.7% of home loans during the first half, or the six months ending 31 March. That's up from 41.4% during the six months prior, or 35.3% of all new lending in the back half of 2023. The numbers rose even higher in the month of March, with proprietary flows reaching 50%.
At the same time, Australia's overall home loan market is slowing, thanks to higher interest rates, reduced borrowing capacities, inflationary pressures, the revised budget and general market uncertainty.
NAB's third-quarter trading update in August revealed that total Australian home lending applications fell 15% in the June quarter, compared with the March quarter, while investor activity dropped 17% during the quarter and owner-occupier applications were down 14%.
Furthermore, the bank is forecasting the nation's mortgage market to slow, from 6.7% growth in FY26 to 2.5% in FY27.
More to come.
