{"id":934785,"date":"2026-10-20T09:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/934785\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T09:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:42:18","slug":"nab-job-losses-the-grinch-is-stealing-this-christmas-from-nab-workers-ai-comes-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/934785\/","title":{"rendered":"NAB job losses: The Grinch is stealing this Christmas from NAB workers, AI comes next"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opinion<\/p>\n

\"ColinColin Kruger<\/a>Senior business reporter<\/p>\n

October 20, 2026 \u2014 4:25pm<\/p>\n

October 20, 2026 \u2014 4:25pm<\/p>\n

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Westpac boss Anthony Miller thought he was issuing a hairy-chested war cry to his fellow employees in August when he bragged \u2013 while laying off hundreds of their colleagues \u2013 he worked every day of the year, including Christmas.<\/p>\n

The comment was later clarified to mean he chatted to his dad about the bank over Christmas lunch, but by then his reputation as the Grinch who stole Christmas was solidly in place.<\/p>\n

\"NABNAB chief executive Andrew Irvine says slashing staff will speed up decision-making and improve customer outcomes. Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, his NAB counterpart Andrew Irvine showed us all what a real Grinch looks like.<\/p>\n

Barely two months before the holidays, he announced<\/a> that 1500 employees would be either jobless by Christmas or departing the week after.<\/p>\n

The next 60 days will be utter chaos for NAB\u2019s 42,000 staff, given the short timeframe for so many job losses. Another 1000 jobs will disappear by September next year.<\/p>\n

Irvine\u2019s clear message was that the bank\u2019s bloated head office bureaucracy would be taking the biggest hit, both here and overseas, with its Melbourne HQ suffering most of the damage.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t lay off 2500 staff and consultants in less than a year without relying on a significant level of successful AI adoption to cushion the impact.<\/p>\n

NAB says customer-facing roles will be protected. This is similar to the promise that ANZ made last year when its new broom, Nuno Matos, announced 3500 jobs would be slashed in a similar exercise of simplification of the business to lower costs and focus on growth.<\/p>\n

To hear Irvine tell it, there\u2019ll be upside for NAB\u2019s customers from these job losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese changes are expected to improve outcomes for customers by reducing duplication and speeding up decision-making,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will improve productivity, risk outcomes and execution to be a simpler and more efficient bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ANZANZ led the way with significant job cuts under new boss Nuno Matos.Arsineh Houspian<\/p>\n

The timing of NAB\u2019s cuts is clearly an overdue reaction to the economic climate and the intensifying competition.<\/p>\n

Rising interest rates, slumping property prices and falling productivity \u2013 and their collective impact on an economy on the decline \u2013 demanded a strong response from NAB, which generates most of its business in Australia.<\/p>\n

So does the rising threat of competition from traditional and new digital competitors.<\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t lay off 2500 staff and consultants in less than a year without relying on a significant level of successful AI adoption to cushion the impact.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"About<\/a><\/p>\n

Commonwealth Bank is leading the charge locally in terms of AI adoption, but overseas banks offer a clear example of where things are headed.<\/p>\n

Standard Chartered plans to cut around 7000 corporate roles by 2030, using AI and automation. Singapore\u2019s DBS is targeting 4000 roles being outsourced to AI.<\/p>\n

But the issues for NAB are more pressing than the need to be an AI leader.<\/p>\n

As Jarden\u2019s team of banking analysts, led by Matthew Wilson, point out, traditional banks such as NAB cannot afford to sit still while their business gets disrupted by an advancing wave of fintech rivals and the nadir of a credit cycle looms.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing reliant on low-\/ no-cost deposits to underpin returns in a world of advancing technology may not be sustainable. A business that fundamentally makes money from customer inertia, inattention and information asymmetry appears misguided and under threat,\u201d was their brutal verdict.<\/p>\n

The question from some quarters is why has it taken so long for NAB to cut costs and re-invest in growth areas? Jarden puts NAB two years behind ANZ in transforming its business.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, Irvine has been with NAB since 2020, and has been CEO since 2024. Matos joined ANZ just last year and clearly knew what was needed from day one.<\/p>\n

One thing is clear \u2013 the message that Irvine has been spreading this year about \u201cPeak Australia\u201d and the dangers of not lifting our productivity and adopting AI strongly applies to his bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cLifting productivity must be the No.1 priority for government at all levels. It must also be the No.1 priority for businesses including NAB,\u201d he told the bank\u2019s business summit conference in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne area that will help with our productivity gap is artificial intelligence,\u201d he said. \u201cOrganisations that do not adapt quickly to AI will fall behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CommonwealthCommonwealth Bank chairman Paul O\u2019Malley.Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n

The question for local NAB employees that survive this round of job cuts is whether AI will save NAB and kill their careers.<\/p>\n

Barely a week ago, Commbank chairman Paul O\u2019Malley warned his staff that there were no guarantees about their future as the bank adopted AI and tried to fend off a new breed of competitors.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"ANZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no ability to give a blanket commitment to any individual or to the nation. We are seeing competition today come from tech firms outside of Australia, who are deploying AI and taking Australian businesses out of the value chain,\u201d he told investors at the bank\u2019s AGM.<\/p>\n

Bank workers are not the only ones who should take heed of the warning.<\/p>\n

The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day\u2019s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Close\"ColinColin Kruger<\/a> is a senior business reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opinion Colin KrugerSenior business reporter October 20, 2026 \u2014 4:25pm October 20, 2026 \u2014 4:25pm Save You have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-934785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}