National Australia Bank announces plans to sell its wealth management arm

By Galia Ilan
Share

The National Australia Bank (NAB) has confirmed plans to sell its wealth management arm, MLC, in a bid to simplify the business.

“We need to simplify the bank. The complexity in the bank is just killing us,” stated Andrew Thorburn, CEO of NAB.

NAB is considering de-merge MLC, which it acquired in 2000 for $4.5bn (US$3.39bn), through a stock-market listing.

The bank made the announcement on 3 March, following the 16% drop in cash profit in the six months leading to March, hitting $2.76bn (US$2.08bn) due to the cost of restructuring.

NAB also noted its cash earning falling by 0.2% to $3.3bn (US$2.49bn).

SEE ALSO:

The bank only saw a 1.5% rise in its six month net profit of $2.58bn (US$1.94bn).

“We do think serving the wealth needs of our clients is important, but we have to do it differently,” said Thorburn.

“I think divesting this will simplify the bank dramatically. Right now I think the cost of complexity is really high in terms of mistakes and customer experience."

Share

Featured Videos

View all
Featured

Schneider Electric - Global Specialist in Energy Management

Digital Strategy

Allianz Malaysia: Closer to customers through digital