[12] The resignations were preceded by a Board revolt where Catherine Walters emerged as a whistle blower citing serious culture issues at the company having led to the string of failures.

[14] Stewart proceeded with a far reaching re-organisation of the company along regional lines leading to the appointment of Ahmed Fahour as the CEO of Australia in September 2004.

[17] It began to outsource back office positions offshore, beginning with a pilot with 23 jobs from the accounts payable department in Melbourne going to Bangalore, India in an agreement with Accenture.

By 2006, NAB had turned its fortunes around, reporting an industry record $4.3 billion profit and winning two local Bank of the Year awards.

In March 2008, NAB announced that it would send maintenance and support for some core banking applications to India through an offshoring arrangement with Infosys and Satyam, affecting another 260 employees.

[23] On 25 July 2008, NAB's announcement of an additional A$830 million provision associated with deterioration in US real estate markets triggered the biggest single-day fall in its share price in 21 years, wiping over A$7 billion from the stock's value.

[24] In October 2008, NAB launched a branchless direct bank trading separately as UBank under the leadership of Greg Sutherland and Gerd Schenkel.

[25] In January 2009, Cameron Clyne became CEO,[26] and began a strategy of reputation change, wealth management and a focus on domestic markets.

As part of this strategy, NAB's underweight retail bank – under the leadership of Lisa Gray – attempted to increase market share by competing on price and cutting fees.

[37] In 2009, NAB acquired the mortgage business of Challenger Financial Services for $385 million, in order to boost its market share in the broker channel.

[42] NAB's poor 2012 financial results called its strategy into question:[43][44] net profit dropped by 22% compared to the previous year.

[52] In July 2019, Ross McEwan was appointed group chief executive officer and managing director, after resigning from the Royal Bank of Scotland in April of that year.

[57] On 19 January 2023, NAB announced that it would create a stablecoin called the AUDN that would be pegged to the Australian Dollar, and that the digital asset would be on the Ethereum network.

[72][73] While NAB has received recognition as an early adopter and leader in CRM (Customer Relationship Management)[74] the system was reinvigorated in 2004–5 as part of the broader turnaround to support the new focus on cross-selling.

[75][76] In 2006, NAB was named the winner of the IFS/Cap Gemini Financial Innovation awards for its CRM system, internally called "National Leads".

Other significant sporting sponsorships included the Socceroos, the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and was the main shirt sponsor of the South Sydney Rabbitohs between 2008 and 2010.

[92] In 2004, NAB discovered that as a result of unauthorised spot trades on its foreign currency options desk, losses totalling A$360 million had been covered up.

In 2006, two former NAB foreign currency options traders were sentenced on charges brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and incurred jail terms.

[97] The NAB employee was not officially connected with BSI but gave instructions to agents based in Canada to arrange for the transfer of funds back to Strategic Investments Group and other accounts.

There is also a connection, not yet pursued by ASIC, to the collapse of the Allco HIT Ltd and Strategic Finances where it is suspected that the swampland was used to underpin financial dealings.

[98] More than $5.5 million in inflated invoices from an event and function company Human Group were paid between 2014 and 2017 to Rosemary Rogers an NAB employee for more than twenty years, nine of which was as chief of staff to CEOs Cameron Clyne and Andrew Thorburn.

The money was paid by a co-accused Helen Rosamond "as an inducement or reward to ensure that Human Group maintained a contract with NAB" according to court documents.

In sentencing, Judge Paul Conlon said the benefits she received went "well beyond compensating family for any perceived neglect", and went onto say, "I find it absolutely staggering that this fraud were not detected by some appropriate system of internal auditing by NAB".

An anonymous whistle-blower sent a letter to NAB executives in 2017, alleging "Rose" had been receiving money and gifts over a number of years from Ms Rosamond.

[100] Mr Justice Peter Kelly, an Irish High Court judge commented following publication of the Report "The edifice of banking is built on a foundation of trust.

[105] Over the same timeframe, NAB loaned A$1.1 billion to ten companies that were expanding the scale of the fossil fuel sector and/or relying on scenarios consistent with the failure of the Paris Agreement to justify their future business prospects.

[105] In November 2019, NAB announced it would exit the thermal coal sector by 2035,[112] attracting criticism on the basis that this is five years too late to be considered compatible with the Paris Agreement climate goals.

These responses include: A royal commission was established on in December 2017 to inquire into and report on misconduct in the banking, superannuation, and financial services industry.

[121] A subsequent parliamentary inquiry recommended a royal commission, noting the lack of regulatory intervention by the relevant government authorities,[122] and later revelations that financial institutions were involved in money laundering for drug syndicates, turned a blind eye to terrorism financing, and ignored statutory reporting responsibilities[123] and impropriety in foreign exchange trading.

[125] The following month ASIC commenced civil proceedings in the Federal Court alleging that NAB-owned superannuation entities had deducted $100 million in fees from more than 300,000 customers where services were not provided.