Full Year 2021 National Australia Bank Ltd Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Victor German - Macquarie Research - Analyst : Two questions for me. I'll ask the question on markets income first and then on investment spend as well. With respect to markets income, I mean, we've talked about it already earlier, but are there any sort of things that you can perhaps point us to as to why you might be more impacted than your peers with a slow interest rate environment. I know that you've talked about repo business being more impacted, which makes sense and presumably, you are more exposed than peers. Maybe if you could give us a sense for how much that business contributes and why you're more impacted than peers to this environment?

Question: Victor German - Macquarie Research - Analyst : Okay. No, that's very helpful. That makes sense. Presumably it means that as we go into next period, ex those, those normal -- those balance sheet activities normalize, you shouldn't be significantly different to peers as, I guess, Ross was also suggesting.

Question: Victor German - Macquarie Research - Analyst : That's very helpful. And secondly, I was just hoping to -- I know I asked you this pretty much every half, but I'll do it again. If we look at investment spend, you're looking to hold that broadly flat. If we look across the peer group, everyone has lifted that number quite substantially. I appreciate that the number is not perfectly comparable across the banks. But just maybe if you can give us or remind us why you're comfortable with what you're spending now? Why that $1.3 billion is an appropriate number, particularly in the context of what kind of you described earlier -- or discussed earlier with respect to AUSTRAC potentially needing a little bit of additional investment. Why hasn't that investment, I guess, been done before? And -- And why do you think $1.3 billion is the right number?

Question: Victor German - Macquarie Research - Analyst : It sounds like it's highly unlikely for us to wake up 1 day in the next 3 years that -- and we see that number at $1.6 billion, $1.7 billion, at least the way you're seeing it currently. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 08, 2021 / 11:30PM, NAB.AX - Full Year 2021 National Australia Bank Ltd Earnings Call

Question: Jonathan Mott - Barrenjoey Markets Pty Limited, Research Division - Analyst : Just a couple of more questions again on business banking. And again, that outlook, I think, Ross, since the first half, you're really optimistic about the pipeline that came through, and we've seen that come through now. Agriculture has been very strong. So other areas across the economy that you think you are starting to see growth come through. But also a question I asked last year, if I can follow on with that one. Slide 77, you continue to show the business's exposure with probability of default of greater than 2%, which has hit another record low despite the COVID-exposed segment. Do you actually think that now is an opportunity that you need to take on more risk? Did you need to help the Australian economy? There's some good ROA opportunities out there in business banking, and there's a lot of pressure in margins in other parts of the economy. Should you be taking on more risk? Those are the 2 questions on the business bank, if I could?

Question: Jonathan Mott - Barrenjoey Markets Pty Limited, Research Division - Analyst : Just a quick 1 following on from that. The growth that's coming to you, how much of that is coming from existing customers borrowing more versus new customers to the bank?