The royal commission heard on Tuesday that NAB planners who failed to properly complete key financial planning documents, including insurance policies, roped in other staff to falsely witness the documents despite not having witnessed the signatures of the clients. One NAB planner, Bradley Meyn, also forged the initials of a married couple after failing to fill in the death beneficiary form properly, but was caught out when he put the husband’s initials on the wife’s form and the wife’s initials on the husband’s form. A review by NAB in early 2017 found 353 NAB employees, including planners and customer service officers, had been involved in incorrectly witnessing binding client documents, the royal commission heard. NAB consumer and wealth division’s chief customer officer Andrew Hagger admitted NAB planners had a culture where they thought the false witnessing of documents would help the clients. “In relation to the financial advice area there was a failure of discipline behind this,” Mr Hagger said.

“I believe that the client service officers and advisers and the advisers concerned thought they were taking a shortcut in the interest of the client. I think a social norm had crept in and became entrenched." Senior counsel assisting the royal commission Rowena Orr, QC, said such false witnessing could result in estate trustees invalidating the form and making decisions about a client’s estate that is against their wishes. Loading Mr Hagger said NAB had brought in a program to have the documents of all affected clients witnessed appropriately. Mr Meyn’s false witnessing of client documents was detected in an audit by the bank in November 2016. He was terminated as a NAB employee in December 2016.

However, the royal commission heard NAB did not tell the Australian Securities and Investments Commission of Mr Meyn’s breach until June 2017. By October last year, NAB’s internal review found 2250 clients had superannuation and insurance forms falsely witnessed. Ms Orr took Mr Hagger to a series of internal documents that showed the bank’s financial planning leadership team and the group’s regional executives received a reduced bonus in 2017 despite the issues within the planning arm. One internal document showed NAB general manager Tim Steele complaining to his boss, the head of NAB wealth advice Greg Miller, about the bank's plans to reduce his bonus over the false witnessing issues. Mr Tim Steele said the decision to crimp his would create a “likely perceived unfairness of the consequences” that could lead to a “lack of trust in senior leadership”.