NAB’s ‘fee for no service’ compensation bill rises

Yesterday, ASIC announced it has imposed additional licence conditions on the AFSL of NAB superannuation trustee, Nulis Nominees (Australia) Limited, following breakdowns in internal procedures.

In addition, NAB’s wealth entities discovered that more than 220,000 member accounts in the MLC MasterKey Business Super (MKBS) and MLC MasterKey Personal Super (MKPS) were incorrectly charged planned services fees (PSFs).

“Fund members were charged PSFs for the provision of general advice in circumstances where no plan adviser had been appointed to provide such advice,” the regulator said.

ASIC’s report Financial advice: Fees for no service, released in October 2016, included part of these fees, with NAB initially slated to pay back $16.9 million.

Now, NAB has agreed to a compensation total of $34.7 million, with an average amount of $150 expected to be paid per customer. 

The bank has also commissioned KPMG to carry out an “independent assurance review” into its superannuation business, which is part of the new licence conditions.

“We support the assurance review as it will give our customers further confidence in the systems and process supporting our superannuation business, following a period of significant transformation,” said NAB’s acting executive general manager of wealth products, Garry Mulcahy.

“Over the past five years, we’ve made substantial changes to upgrade and simplify our superannuation business to better serve our customers’ needs.

“We have improved our structure that will allow us to continue to innovate. The review will provide independent assurance that our fund governance is delivering for our customers.”

The first report from KPMG will be provided to ASIC and the trustee by July 2017.