NAB urges vaccination as customers call for financial help

National Australia Bank chief executive Ross McEwan says the bank has seen a rise in calls for help from customers facing financial stress, as he emphasised the need for a fast vaccination rollout to avoid the threat of rolling lockdowns.

After banks on the weekend pledged to support lockdown-affected customers, Mr McEwan said as of late last week there had been a 10 per cent rise in calls to the bank from consumers and businesses needing financial help. Until then, it had seen virtually no increase in calls from struggling customers, he said.

“[There has been] about a 10 per cent increase so far, and let’s see what this week brings,” Mr McEwan said.

NAB chief executive Ross McEwan: “If we want to get out of this and get back to the freedoms that we used to have, let’s get vaccinated.” Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

It was too early to determine the economic impact of the country’s two biggest cities being locked down, he said, while also highlighting the need for Australia to lift its vaccination rate “very quickly” to avoid the need to lock down in response to COVID-19 outbreaks.

“If we want to get out of this and get back to the freedoms that we used to have, let’s get vaccinated. The more people [who] take up the option of getting vaccinated, the sooner these lockdowns are restricted,” Mr McEwan told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

“We’re seeing that in overseas countries where they’ve vaccinated 70, 75 per cent of the population, and it’s not quite back to normal, but a lot of freedoms are back. I’d urge that we need to get to [that situation] very quickly here in Australia,” Mr McEwan said.

Mr McEwan, who has received the AstraZeneca jab, said NAB had been encouraging staff to get vaccinated and it was open to having employees inoculated at work if possible.

Mr McEwan said it was too early to determine the economic impact of the lockdowns, saying business confidence had dipped but was still at high levels. “What we are thinking here is there will be some impact, but it depends how long the lockdown goes for,” Mr McEwan said.

Experience also had shown that economies post a “very strong” rebound after a lockdown, and he expected a similar pattern this time around.

With Sydney’s lockdown tipped to take a toll of $1 billion a week on the economy, the Australian Banking Association this weekend urged customers in financial stress as a result of lockdowns to contact their bank. Assistance options include potential loan repayment deferrals for consumer and business customers and fee refunds.

ANZ Bank chief executive Shayne Elliott said: “We know this is a challenging time for many people in these current lockdowns, and we understand our customers will likely need some financial assistance.” Westpac chief executive Peter King stressed that customers experiencing problems should contact the bank early to work through the most appropriate option.

Mr McEwan is one of a wide range of business leaders seeking to speed up the national program of vaccination, amid warnings the economy remains vulnerable to fallout from lockdowns.

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn said there was broad agreement among business leaders that it was “critical” to support the vaccination effort. “CBA will support this in any way possible, including making sure our 40,000 people in Australia have time off to get the vaccine,” Mr Comyn said.

The bank on Sunday also said it would extend a moratorium on foreclosures of pandemic-affected owner-occupier borrowers until February next year. The freeze on foreclosures was previously scheduled to end this September.

AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver assumed the Sydney lockdown could continue for seven weeks in total, and the total cost of all Australian lockdowns over the last year was probably about $10 billion.

Even so Dr Oliver said that cost was better than the alternative, and while there could be a hit to unemployment in the months ahead, the longer-term outlook for Australia’s economy was more positive as vaccination rates increased.

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Clancy Yeates is a business reporter.

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