Confronting claims from a shareholder that the latest legal action renewed concerns that NAB put “profits over people”, with some of the affected financial hardship customers victims of domestic violence and critical health conditions, he said the bank and its management “really regret that this happened,” calling the issue an “operational mistake”.

“The only consolation I can offer is that I think over that time, there were over 100,000 applications that we dealt with, and there were 345 that we failed to deal with.”

While ratifying changes to the NAB board and remuneration reports for its top executives, shareholders knocked back a resolution that would have given investors power to advise on and monitor the board’s dealings with fossil fuel companies, as an accountability tool to support NAB’s environmental goals.

The resolution was filed on behalf of more than 100 shareholders by environmental non-profit organisation Market Forces. Addressing the board at the AGM, Market Forces senior banking analyst Kyle Robertson said shareholders had been left in the dark on NAB’s plans to finance fossil fuel companies now and in the future.

“Unless NAB requires its clients to demonstrate Paris [agreement] alignment, banks’ historical financing activity indicates that it will continue providing finance to companies misaligned with the Paris climate goals,” Robertson said.

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“There is a clear recognition from the bank that fossil fuel expansion is incompatible with local climate goals … however continuing to arrange corporate finance or bonds for the same companies developing those projects is a substantive loophole.”

Ninety-five per cent of voters opposed the motion, after the board warned that the proposal was “likely to disproportionately favour activist shareholders who have a practice of requisitioning special interest resolutions”, and recommended voting against it.

Among the handful of attendees supporting the resolution was NAB customer Peter Lake, a farmer from northern NSW whose insurance has become unaffordable after a series of flooding events on his property.

“Record floods and droughts have impacted my business, and I’m deeply concerned that it will continue to get worse and become harder to adapt to. Your financial support for companies developing new coal, oil and gas projects is completely at odds with your support for Australian farmers,” Lake told Chronican.

Chronican said shareholders held “several” avenues to raise concerns about the company’s practices, other than the knocked-back resolution.

“The bank can’t change the climate,” he said. “But what we can do is adjust our lending so that it’s commensurate with what the economy needs to look like as we move to net zero.”

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