NAB CEO Ross McEwan today announced that NAB will provide a unique level of education and accreditation for its workforce in what will be an industry first in Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s time to raise the bar in banking professionalism and NAB will lead the way,” Mr McEwan said.
Run in partnership with Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA), the program will go above and beyond the industry standard and give NAB bankers and all support function colleagues formal qualifications to carry forward throughout their careers.
“We want the very best bankers in Australia, and globally, to be at NAB. That’s how we will serve our customers well. Every one of our 34,000 colleagues will take part in this program,” Mr McEwan said.
“By lifting the quality of service we provide and setting clearer, more consistent expectations of conduct, NAB will raise the bar for professionalism within the financial services industry.”
Mr McEwan said that the qualification was designed for NAB colleagues to build their skills, capabilities and confidence, in order to best serve customers. The program is part of NAB’s ambition to serve customers well and invest in colleagues.
“This qualification will be the cornerstone of a career pathway. It will include the fundamentals of banking – getting the basics right which I’ve said from day one at NAB is so critical to serving our customers well – and the skills and expertise for supporting customers in good times and tough times, which will be needed in a post COVID-19 world,” Mr McEwan said.
Mr McEwan said NAB would be the first major Australian bank to implement this accredited career pathway and was working with FINSIA to deliver the curriculum.
“We support the critical work which FINSIA does for our industry, as the leading professional body for financial services across Australia and New Zealand. Raising the bar of professionalism in our industry is a shared goal that will be best achieved together,” he said.
By supporting NAB and BNZ colleagues to obtain a financial services qualification, Mr McEwan said he wanted to foster discipline and a commitment to professionalism at NAB.
“We want all colleagues to feel proud to work for NAB and proud to be in banking and we want our customers to be confident they are being served by the best bankers in the industry,” he said.
Background information:
- In his time as the CEO of The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Ross McEwan led RBS to take a market leading position to improve the professionalism of the financial services industry. The training program was implemented after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and amid concerns about reputation, conduct, poor credit skills, and lack of awareness of banking in general.
- Over more than 3 years, with dedicated support from the RBS executive team, RBS employees underwent the Chartered Banker ‘Professional Banking Fundamentals’ (PBF) and ‘Certified Banker’ qualifications.
- NAB’s CEO Ross McEwan wants to apply the same discipline and commitment to the banking profession by developing NAB and BNZ colleagues to obtain a financial services qualification.
