National Australia Bank (NAB) has entered into an enforceable undertaking with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), following an industry wide review into Spot Foreign Exchange (FX) trading between January 2008 and June 2013.
The enforceable undertaking acknowledges ASIC’s concerns in relation to NAB’s obligations to provide systems, controls and a framework for monitoring employees in its Spot FX business, regarding disclosure or receipt of confidential information and any related issues.
NAB Group Chief Risk Officer, David Gall said NAB has fully cooperated with ASIC in resolving this matter.
“We take our role in upholding high standards of professional conduct seriously. Core to our values and commitment to customers and the community is doing the right thing. However, we acknowledge that in some instances within our Spot FX business we could have better trained our people and had more appropriate systems and processes in place.
“The trust of our global Spot FX clients, the majority of which are institutional investors, is crucial and it is a priority to improve our controls and risk management systems so that they can have confidence in doing business with us.
“While Australian banks are small players in the global Spot FX market, we strongly support a well-functioning and fair global FX market and will ensure the changes we make under this enforceable undertaking align with the recommendations made in the Global FX Code of Conduct being developed by the Bank for International Settlements,” Mr Gall said.
As part of the enforceable undertaking, NAB has agreed to make changes to its existing systems, controls and framework for monitoring communications within its Spot FX business. This process will be overseen by an independent expert to be appointed by ASIC, who will periodically report to the corporate regulator on NAB’s progress.
NAB has also agreed to make a $2.5 million voluntary contribution to Financial Literacy Australia to fund financial literacy in the aged care sector and promote ethical behaviour in Australian financial markets.
