NAB swings the axe in markets division; thins out commodities team
Redundancies are in full swing at National Australia Bank’s markets division.
National Australia Bank chief economists for markets Ivan Colhoun.
Street Talk understands the bank has let go of Ivan Colhoun, its chief economist for corporate and institutional banking. He had been with the bank for nine years and was appointed to the top role in March 2022.
Also out the door is economics director David de Garis, who had been a key member of the bank’s Morning Call podcast team, working out of NAB’s London office.
The job cuts spilled into the commodities desk, including head of commodities strategy Baden Moore, senior associate Adam Skelton and global head of commodity trading John Watson. The team abruptly ceased publishing its Resources Today report last week.
NAB has flagged that it intends to reduce its thermal coal mining exposure to effectively zero by 2030.
A NAB spokesperson declined to confirm specific positions made redundant in the markets team, but said the decision was difficult.
“We regularly look at the way we work to ensure we are serving our customers well,” NAB said.
“The environment we operate in is constantly changing and we need to have the right skills, capabilities and structures to improve productivity and better support our customers.
“These decisions are always difficult, and our priority is on ensuring we provide care and support to those individuals impacted.”
Street Talk reported that NAB was preparing to hand down redundancies to about 10 per cent of the 600 staff manning its markets division amid a company-wide headcount rethink in August.
The layoffs were expected to include capital markets types working within NAB’s corporate and institutional banking unit, where its markets business sits.
The markets team is well known to investors and bankers, being a regular in big corporate bond issues and in leveraged buyout financing.
NAB seems to be taking cues from its big four banking peers Westpac and Commonwealth Bank, which have already tightened the belt in staffing levels in a bid to lower costs.
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