“Economically, Australia is slowing down,” he said. “We’re not seeing a real drop-off or customers struggling to pay off credit cards, but it’s getting quieter, businesses and personal customers are making adjustments, and they’re finding it harder. But we’ve strengthened our core bank, which is our business and private bank, strengthened our personal bank ... and the New Zealand business is going well, so I think there are plenty of growth opportunities to be found in those markets.”

NAB chair Phil Chronican said both internal and external candidates were considered, but noted there was a higher threshold for external hires given the bank’s focus on continuity and building on McEwan’s work.

He said Irvine was the ideal choice to succeed McEwan after a lengthy assessment process, given his success leading the nation’s largest business bank franchise and his international experience.

Chronican praised McEwan, who joined the bank at the end of 2019 with a mandate for change in the wake of the banking royal commission following the exit of the bank’s then-chief executive Andrew Thorburn and chairman Ken Henry.

“Ross has been exactly the CEO we needed. He came in at a critical time with significant international experience and expertise,” Chronican said. “Ross has done a great job developing the company, stabilising the organisation, fixing many of the issues of the past.”

Irvine will receive a fixed remuneration of $2.5 million a year, including superannuation, and will also assume McEwan’s position of chair of the Australian Banking Association on behalf of NAB.

McEwan will retire and cease employment from NAB on July 1 after stepping down from the chief executive role on April 2, and following a transition period.

McEwan said it was mid to late last year that he told Chronican he felt ready to kick off the retirement process.

“It just felt like the right time,” he said. “We’ve been doing a lot of development work internally with our senior executives, the organisation has done a great job of rebuilding its mojo and, for myself, I’ve done several very large gigs, and it just felt like the time to do something different.”

Jefferies equity analyst Matthew Wilson said he didn’t expect any dramatic change in strategy but it would not surprise him to see “a level of executive refreshment”.

J.P. Morgan lead Australian banks analyst Andrew Triggs said Irvine’s appointment was unlikely to impact the bank’s earnings, given NAB’s good shape, but that its investment spend was lower than its peers and could be an area of focus.

Shares in NAB fell 0.2 per cent to $31.13 at the close on Wednesday.

McEwan plans to split his time between Australia and New Zealand following his retirement.

“From a personal perspective, I have an amazing wife who has followed me for 25 years in different countries,” he said. “One of my biggest tasks will be to be a better grandfather than I probably have been for the last five or six years, and I’d like to think let’s do a couple of board roles.”

NAB said a new business and private banking group executive would be selected in due course.

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