Paul,
Interested in your thoughts as to NAB “outperforming” against the other big banks – Charlie Aitken’s article on NAB was interesting, and I would be interested in whether you still see CBA as the best of the big 4.
A: Yes – I rate CBA as number 1.
I understand Charlie’s point of view (about NAB being “cheap”) and am encouraged by the early action of the new CEO (Andrew Thorburn) to shake up his management team.
However, I think it will be at least 12 to 18 months before you start to see any material progress in the performance of the NAB. The issue has never been the legacy problems from the UK – it has been the under-performance of their Australian banking and wealth businesses, together with a challenging technology upgrade. I don’t feel these issues can be addressed quickly.
