National Australia Bank (NAB) plans to cut up to 2,500 staff by mid-2027, it announced on Tuesday, citing “rapid technological change” as one of the key reasons for shrinking its workforce.
The reduction in staff, which would affect around 6 per cent of NAB’s more than 40,000 workers if it goes ahead as planned, would see “up to 1,500 roles” cut by the end of 2026, the bank said.
NAB will also “materially reduce its use of consultants and external contractors”, it confirmed in a statement.
The Finance Sector Union (FSU), which is consulting with NAB on its plans, said it had been told around 180 roles will be offshored to NAB offices in Vietnam and India.
The bank said it is facing “more challenging economic conditions, increasing customer expectations, competitive intensity, and rapid technological change”.
NAB’s push to reduce its workforce would help it “simplify its operating model and better align its workforce to prioritise growth and technology initiatives for customers”, the bank said.
CEO Andrew Irvine said the company wants to be “a simpler and more efficient bank”.
“These changes are expected to improve outcomes for customers by reducing duplication and speeding up decision making,” he said in a statement.
“We are particularly focused on reducing the size of corporate functions.
“There will be no material impact to customer-facing banking roles.”
The restructure is expected to cost NAB around $300 million pre-tax in “redundancy, redeployment and organisational redesign costs” – a much larger restructuring cost than the approximately $80 million it incurred in both of the two previous financial years.
NAB’s share price dropped almost 2 per cent on Tuesday, but regained around half of those loses by midday on Wednesday.
The company’s net profit in the 2025 financial year fell around 3 per cent to $6.76 billion.
Union calls NAB's plans 'disgraceful’
The FSU said it is “appalled by and ready to fight” NAB’s announcement, which it suggested will have “devastating consequences for affected workers and those left behind, who face increased job insecurity and unmanageable workloads”.
“It is disgraceful that thousands of NAB workers learned of these cuts through an email, with little detail about which roles will be affected,” the union told members on Tuesday.
“We have demanded an urgent meeting with CEO Andrew Irvine to challenge these cuts, provide your feedback, and demand answers.”
The union said it is “deeply concerned” for NAB workers’ personal and financial wellbeing following what it called “a ruthless management decision” to announce major layoffs ahead of the Christmas period.
It also said NAB staff have recently reported “high levels of stress and anxiety from unbearable workloads caused by previous job cuts”, which have included reductions to parts of its technology workforce.
FSU national assistant secretary Nicole McPherson said NAB workers’ holiday cheer had been “replaced with uncertainty over their futures”.
“The actions of NAB management are despicable and have been compounded by the contemptuous way they have kept their workers in the dark,” she said.
“NAB’s public statement today was nothing but corporate spin but its intention is clear – NAB sees its workers as a barrier to profits and a problem that can be swept aside with ruthless cuts.”
Irvine said the bank he leads is aware “this will be a difficult period for our colleagues impacted by these changes as well as the people around them”.
“We will treat every person with dignity and respect,” he said.
NAB said departing staff would be offered redundancy entitlements, career transition support, and redeployment and reskilling opportunities.
‘Refused to confirm’ possible impact of AI
NAB executives “refused to confirm whether the cuts were due to artificial intelligence” during a meeting with union representatives on Tuesday, the FSU said.
While the bank’s announcement of planned job cuts did not include any mention of AI, NAB has recently told politicians it is increasingly implementing AI technologies, including to reduce manual work.
NAB’s group executive for technology and AI, Pete Steel, told a parliamentary inquiry earlier this month, “We also need to be upfront that jobs will change, some will go, and some new ones will emerge.”
“We haven’t lost roles to AI – or, sorry, we haven’t lost FTE [full-time equivalent] employees to AI,” he told the Joint Select Committee on AI on 9 October.
“We have redirected people into customer-facing roles instead, and also we have created some new roles that didn't exist before, to help manage AI as well.
“So far it has been, I think, a somewhat virtuous redirection of people using AI.
“That will only go so far – eventually, I'm sure all workforces in Australia will start to see some change in size and shape.”
Steel said while NAB has “an extremely willing workforce who want to understand AI more”, he admitted some employees may resist.
“Many people want to get themselves future fit using AI,” he said.
“Some people won't, and that's okay – they maybe aren't as excited about changing the way they've worked and things.
“But generally, we're going to be a forward-looking organisation and embrace AI, and we want it to make everybody more productive.”
