Good morning, and welcome to National Australia Bank Limited's annual general meeting. I'm Louise Thomson, Group Company Secretary. Before commencing this annual general meeting, I would like to invite my colleague, Evanne Little, to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are hosting today's meeting.
Thank you, Louise, for the introduction. Good morning, shareholders, NAB leadership, and NAB people, and anyone else joining the AGM today. As a First Nations Central Arrernte and Luritja Purula woman from Central Australia, and head of NAB's Indigenous Affairs, on behalf of the National Australia Bank, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians and owners of the lands of Melbourne, the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. This is a beautiful country, and we are grateful to be here. We pay respect to your elders past, present, and emerging. We would also like to pay respect to the traditional owners of all the lands that you are joining us from today. In doing this, we acknowledge the continuing connections of all Indigenous and First Nations peoples' traditional ownership of land, rights, and their law. Thank you.
Thank you for your acknowledgement, Evanne. We had hoped this year's AGM would be a physical meeting. While some restrictions have eased here in Victoria, there are still many uncertainties and risks regarding the pandemic. The health and well-being of our shareholders, colleagues, and communities remain important to us, and we felt that a virtual meeting would deliver the best experience for the greatest number of shareholders relative to the risks of a large gathering. As a result, today's meeting is being held virtually through an online platform. A significant number of shareholders have already voted, appointed proxies, and submitted questions ahead of this meeting, and we thank them for doing so. As outlined in our notice of meeting, shareholders and proxy holders may vote and submit questions during this meeting using the online platform.
I'll explain the procedures, but if you require technical assistance during the meeting, our AGM guide is on the AGM page of our website, and our technical support team's contact details are shown on the screen now. If we experience significant technical difficulties during the meeting, the chair may decide to adjourn the meeting to later in the day or another day, and we will notify you of the proposed time to reconvene via our AGM page of our website and an ASX announcement. If technical difficulties are less significant, the chair will consider the number of shareholders impacted and the extent to which shareholders' reasonable participation is affected before deciding whether to adjourn the meeting. Shareholders and proxy holders may ask questions on any item of business using the online platform, either in writing or orally.
If you wish to submit a question in writing, we encourage you to do so now, and the chair will respond at the relevant item of business. Written questions put to the meeting will be read out by one of my colleagues before they are responded to. You may also ask a question orally using the live audio function on the online platform. We want to address questions from as many shareholders as possible during the meeting to ensure that all shareholders have an opportunity to participate in the meeting. To help us do that efficiently and to ensure the orderly conduct of the meeting, we ask that you limit your questions to one or two per item of business, and that you ensure your questions are relevant to all shareholders. Please indicate which item of business your question relates to and keep your questions concise.
The online platform accepts up to 1000 characters. That's approximately 4 to 5 sentences for written questions. Written questions will be moderated, and we may group questions when they are on the same topic so as not to duplicate questions. Questions related to a customer or shareholder's individual circumstances will not be read out, as this is a public forum. Out of respect for all attendees at today's meeting, questions or statements that contain explicit, abusive, or threatening language will not be read out. The chair will take all questions on climate-related matters at item 5 so that related questions are discussed together. Now to explain how to ask questions. To ask a question in writing, select the messaging icon, type your question in the chat box at the top of the screen, and select the send icon. You will receive confirmation that your question has been received.
To ask a question orally, first pause the webcast and select the Asking a Live Audio Question link on the homepage. You will be placed in a queue. When the chair invites you to speak, your voice will be heard at the meeting. The audio quality we hear will depend on your device, and we ask that you please minimize any background noise. Now to voting. All resolutions to be considered at this meeting will be decided on a poll. Votes can be submitted at any time from when the chair declares the poll open until 10 minutes after the meeting closes to provide ample opportunity for shareholders and proxy holders to submit their votes. When the chair declares the poll open, a voting icon will appear on screen and the resolutions will be displayed. To vote, select one of the voting options. Your response will be highlighted.
To change your vote, simply press a different option to override it. The number of items you have voted on or are yet to vote on is displayed at the top of the screen. You may change your votes up to the time the chair closes the poll. Christina Piccolo from Computershare will act as the Returning Officer for the purpose of conducting and determining the results of the poll for each resolution, and the results will be announced later today on the ASX and the AGM page of our website. I would now like to introduce our chair, Mr. Philip Chronican.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this meeting. It is just after 9:30 A.M. This is a properly constituted meeting, and a quorum is present. I therefore declare the annual general meeting of National Australia Bank open, and welcome shareholders, proxy holders and guests. I'm joining you today from Melbourne, and I too acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we are holding today's meeting, the Wurundjeri and Bunurong people of the Kulin nation. I pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging. Before delivering my address, I'll make some introductions. On stage with me today are our Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ross McEwan. Our Group Chief Financial Officer, Gary Lennon. A fellow Non-Executive Director, Anne Loveridge, who stands for re-election today. And our Group Company Secretary, Louise Thomson, who spoke earlier.
As well as Ross and Anne, other board members here with us today are David Armstrong, Piyush Gupta, Ann Sherry and Simon McKeon. Joining us by telephone today are our other board members, Doug McKay, who is also chair of our Bank of New Zealand subsidiary. Good morning, Doug.
Thanks all. Good morning, everyone. Pleasure to be here.
Kathryn Fagg. Good morning, Kathryn.
Good morning too . Good morning, everyone.
Sarah Lowe, the Lead Engagement Partner of our auditor, Ernst & Young, is also in attendance and is available to answer questions related to the conduct of the audit and the auditor's report. Assisting us today is Virginia Porter, a senior member of the NAB team, who will be reading out written questions and introducing audio questions. As Louise said, all resolutions in this meeting will be decided on a poll. I now declare the poll open on all resolutions so that shareholders can start to vote. Thank you again to those shareholders who submitted questions in advance of the meeting today. We received 82 questions, all of which I've read. Many were on similar topics, and I will respond to the most common themes during my address. I also want to acknowledge the terrible tragedy that occurred in Tasmania yesterday.
Our thoughts are with the families and everyone in the community during what will be an extremely difficult time for them. I will now deliver my address. This morning's meeting is an important opportunity to reflect on our performance for our shareholders and to discuss the future of our business. A little over two years ago, the board took accountability for ensuring the necessary changes were made at NAB, and that our customers, our people and our shareholders would see the benefit. That work continues. However, I'm pleased to say we are now well progressed. We are finishing 2021 a better bank. In a year characterized by continued challenges requiring resilience and the ability to adapt, NAB has demonstrated a strong focus on customers and on colleagues. We've also shown the ability to grow safely.
Our Chief Executive Officer, Ross McEwan, together with his executive leadership team, has created stability and clarity of strategy with greater discipline and stronger execution. There is clear evidence of this plan in our business results, and we are well-placed to deliver improved performance over the long term. In a little over two years, NAB has grown from the fourth to the second largest Australian bank by market capitalization. We have increased the dividend over last year's reduced levels. We know that these are the core performance outcomes that you want to see as owners of the bank. The successful exit of MLC Wealth earlier this year was a major milestone in the simplification of NAB. It has enabled more focus and investment to be directed back into our core banking business.
NAB's acquisition of the neobank 86, 400 and the proposed acquisition of Citigroup's Australian consumer business will enable the bank to quickly build scale in our digital and consumer bank offerings. Meaningful and sustainable change has been made to the way the bank operates. This is a result of the reforms put in place in response to NAB's own self-assessment into governance, accountability and culture in 2018, and following the Financial Services Royal Commission. Implementation of the applicable and actionable recommendations from the commission is on track. Actions to address the root causes identified in our self-assessment are largely complete. We are now engaged with APRA on the assessment of their impact. Several regulatory matters have been concluded. The Introducer Payments Program, Planned Service Fees, Consumer Credit Insurance Products, and Fee Disclosure Statements matters are closed, and customer remediation is complete.
In total, we have returned AUD 1.3 billion to customers since June 2018, and are on track to have the bulk of the remaining legacy issues behind us by the end of 2022. We have made it a priority to deliver higher standards of governance and accountability, and we've driven a reorientation of the bank around customers and colleagues. Products and services have been reviewed to improve customer outcomes. In the 2021 financial year, NAB's strategic Net Promoter Score increased by 4 points to -7. This is equal first among our major bank peers and marks a 10-point increase from -17 in 2019. Investments in NAB colleagues are showing up in our employee survey results. NAB achieved staff engagement levels among the top quartile of global employers during the financial year 2021.
We are changing the way we pay colleagues to ensure remuneration supports our desired culture. 12,000 bankers are moving to 100% fixed pay to ensure that people are rewarded for serving customers well, not for selling. Senior leaders will still have some pay at risk, reflecting their levels of accountability for when things go right and wrong. While we are finding and resolving issues faster, some work remains. We are acutely aware of the important role that the bank plays in monitoring and reporting suspicious and potentially criminal activity. In June, AUSTRAC commenced an enforcement investigation of NAB. At that time, AUSTRAC commented that it was not considering civil penalty proceedings. We have not been notified of any change to this position. However, we note the investigation is ongoing, and we will continue to fully cooperate.
The board recognizes the focus and diligence shown by management in improving financial crime and fraud controls and the imperative to get it right. We are determined to ensure that NAB meets the highest standards. We will continue to make investments to keep the bank safe and to drive performance over the long term. The board has high ambitions for NAB, and it's pleased with the direction now set and being acted on. In a challenging environment, the board is encouraged by NAB's 2021 full year results. They reflect good momentum across all businesses, capital strength, and sound credit quality. We are pleased to have increased the dividends across the full year to AUD 1.27 per share compared with the reduced level in 2020. This outcome is closer to the level of shareholder return that the board is targeting going forward.
Future dividends will be guided by a target payout ratio in the range of 65%-75% of sustainable cash earnings, subject to the circumstances at the time. The business delivered a cash return on equity of 10.7% for the 2021 financial year. This was 2.4 percentage points higher than last year, although we recognize that it is still lower than 2019. Our capital ratio at the end of September 2021 was 13%, and this is above the target range of 10.75%-11.25%. Strong capital supports growth, but the board also looks at returning surplus capital to shareholders. Our preference is to continue to reduce our share count so that we can deliver better earnings and dividend per share outcomes over the long term.
This is underway now through a AUD 2.5 billion share buyback, which we started in August and is approximately 40% complete. Executive and employee remuneration outcomes for 2021 have been set by the board at a level that reflects the strong progress that we have made on the strategic repositioning of the business and the resolution of legacy issues. It reflects an assessment of performance against the targets set in NAB's 2021 financial year plan, as well as greater employee engagement and significantly better outcomes for customers. This contrasts with the remuneration outcomes for the past two years, when the CEO and executive team received no short-term incentive payments. Looking ahead, I am cautiously optimistic that the worst of the economic impact of COVID-19 is behind us.
I am confident the Australian economy will rebound in 2022, with the protection of having one of the highest rates of vaccination in the world and a booster program now well underway. The pandemic has accelerated generational shifts in technology. Customers are choosing to bank with NAB in new ways. Today, 94% of customer transactions are online and more than 40% of our home lending appointments are done through video conference. We are supporting our customers as they make this change. Through the investments made in recent years, NAB has strengthened its technology foundations. This enables us now to place greater emphasis on using digital, data, and analytics to deliver faster, better, and more personalized experiences to customers.
We're also strengthening our defenses against the growing global threat of financial and cyber crimes. More broadly, new technologies will be central to the decarbonization of the Australian and New Zealand economies. This will be the greatest economic shift of our lifetime. NAB's primary contribution to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees is through the financing that we provide to our customers. We are facilitating the investment required to realize the immense economic opportunity for Australia and in New Zealand in a low-carbon economy. Our goal is to align our lending portfolio to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. We were the first Australian member bank to sign up to the Collective Commitment to Climate Action, which was established under the United Nations Environment Programme's Finance Initiative.
We now have also joined the associated Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which together with the CCCA, set out concrete and time-bound actions for member banks. NAB is winding down our financing of fossil fuels over time, while at the same time growing in renewable energy finance. We have made clear statements regarding our targets and approach. We will support an orderly transition of Australia's energy system. NAB is the only major Australian bank so far to have set an upper limit on oil and gas extraction and production exposures, and to put restrictions on lending to greenfield gas projects. We will not directly finance any greenfield oil extraction project or onboard new customers predominantly focused on oil extraction. We will not lend to new thermal coal mining projects or take on new thermal coal mining customers.
We've set a target for our exposure to thermal coal mining to be effectively zero by 2030, aside from some residual performance guarantees to ensure site rehabilitation. Since 2003, we have lent AUD 11.5 billion to fund more than 150 global renewable energy projects, more than any other Australian bank. We are also well progressed in our target to source 100% of our own electricity from renewable sources by 2025. According to the Business Council of Australia needs a further AUD 50 billion invested in renewables to get to 100% green power generation. That investment alone would still not be enough to take the Australian economy to net zero. It would only address about a third of our carbon emissions. To get to net zero, every business and every industry will have to evolve.
Every household will need to make changes, and that is where a bank like NAB can help. As a priority, we are working with 100 of our largest greenhouse gas-emitting customers to develop or improve their low-carbon transition plans by 2023. We are supporting customers to decarbonize and build resilience to climate change. Electrifying transport, heating, and cooling systems will further reduce reliance on oil and gas. Deloitte analysis shows that this could reduce Australia's emissions by up to 80% by 2050 once electricity generation reaches 100% renewable. The remaining 20% of Australia's emissions will be harder to abate. As an agricultural nation, our farmers and foresters will play a role. Some cutting-edge Australian farms are already using methane capture technology in livestock operations to halve waste-based emissions.
At the same time, there is also increasing recognition of the importance of protecting and restoring natural environments to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. At NAB, we have finalized our work to baseline the estimated attributable financed emissions of eight key sectors of our Australian lending portfolio. These are residential mortgages, commercial real estate, agriculture, power generation, resources, heavy manufacturing, transport, and small and medium enterprises. In the next twelve months, we will disclose how we will be aligning our lending to these sectors against the 1.5-degree scenario. The commercial opportunity to finance the climate transition is significant. Developing and deploying low-carbon solutions will require meaningful backing. Partnerships between business and government is critical. Disruptive innovation involves some risk-taking, and history has shown that only a small percentage of inventive concepts reach commercial viability.
The federal government's AUD 20 billion Technology Investment Roadmap and the New South Wales State Government's AUD 3 billion in grants for green hydrogen projects are good examples of partnerships in action. Before us is an opportunity not just to keep up with the world, but to become a leader in renewable resources and low-carbon technologies. NAB is backing businesses to realize that opportunity. In this ever-changing environment, ensuring that your board is equipped with the right skills and experience is critical. We anticipate appointing at least one new director in 2022 to achieve our target board size of 10, including our managing director. We are prioritizing experience in transformation using digital technology and greater diversity across all dimensions. Anne Loveridge, who has been a member of your board since 2015, stands for re-election today.
Anne is chair of NAB's People and Remuneration Committee and a member of the Customer and Nomination and Governance Committees. I can say with confidence that NAB is focused on the right things, serving customers well, and helping our communities prosper. That is how we are building long-term value for shareholders. I want to thank our team of 32,000 for their hard work in challenging circumstances this year, and I'd like to thank you, our shareholders, for your trust and support to build a better bank. I will now hand over to our Group Chief Executive Officer, Ross McEwan.
Thank you, Chair, and good morning, everyone. Like Phil, I'd also want to express my deep sympathy to the families impacted by the tragic loss of young lives in Devonport yesterday. I'll now share more about your company and its performance over the past twelve months. In the year that Australians and New Zealanders have again faced more challenges, I've been particularly encouraged by the resilience of the economy and our communities. This is being demonstrated by the strong business-led rebound underway. While some COVID-related uncertainties remain, I'm confident that 2022 will be a very good year. My confidence is supported by the fact that Australia and New Zealand have two of the highest vaccinated rates in the world. As we enjoy more freedoms, major CBDs such as Melbourne and Sydney, and the businesses that serve them, are coming back to life.
More broadly, most businesses are in good shape. They want to borrow, invest, to grow and create new jobs and opportunities. We are consistently lending more to businesses every month than we have in a decade. We recently had our largest business lending month on record. It is our role to be there for our customers. By serving them well, we will support the economic rebound and help our communities prosper. When our customers do well, our business does well. It's now two years since I started in this role and around 18 months since we refreshed our strategy, giving us a clear plan for our bank. In that time, we've progressed ahead of where I expected us to be. Our investment in customers and colleagues is delivering better service outcomes, higher engagement and growth across every part of our business.
We're making progress on the four key areas we want to be known for. That is, being relationship-led, easy to do business with, safe and thinking long-term. We are improving our execution, and we're getting the basics right more consistently, all of which is delivering improved performance. At our recent full year results, we announced that NAB had delivered a solid financial performance, including a 39% improvement in cash earnings, driven by increased momentum across our bank and strong asset quality. Importantly, we again had no large one-off charges. This improved performance is reflected in returns to shareholders, with total dividends for the full year of AUD 1.27 per share, up from AUD 0.60 per share last year. At the same time, we have retained a very strong balance sheet.
Our customer outcomes, our Net Promoter Score, reached equal highest of the major banks this year, and our partnerships in Australia and globally are helping us innovate faster and develop world-class products and services for our customers. We're working with international non-competing banks, big tech and fintech to access global scale and ideas, looking beyond domestic peers as a competitive benchmark. We're investing heavily to protect customers, the bank and the broader financial system from the growing threat of cybersecurity, fraud and financial crime. There are areas we need to improve to play our role in the prevention of financial crime. Phil acknowledged earlier that AUSTRAC has initiated a formal enforcement investigation into our anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance. We take this work very seriously. It is an absolute priority to get it right. There are about 1,500 colleagues dedicated to managing financial crime risk and remediation.
Let me be clear that every person at NAB has a role to play in identifying and reporting potential criminal activity. Across the board, we're investing in colleagues to help them succeed. Over 7,000 colleagues have enrolled in our career qualified banking program, and a single leadership program is in place for every leader at NAB, creating consistency and discipline in how we work. Leadership is key to having clear, capable, and motivated colleagues, the most important asset to deliver on NAB's strategy. Angela Mentis has completed a very successful period running BNZ in New Zealand and hit the ground running in her new position of Group Chief Digital Data and Analytics Officer. Dan Huggins has replaced Angie as Managing Director and CEO of BNZ. He is a high-quality executive who I'm sure will continue BNZ's momentum.
Les Matheson, who has deep experience in banking globally, joined the executive team in January as our Group Chief Operating Officer. I'm proud of what every one of my 32,000 colleagues at NAB have done to help customers and each other through the last 12 months. I'm grateful for their dedication to their roles and their customers at a time when they have been dealing with the significant impacts of the pandemic on their own lives. To them, I say a big thank you. Looking ahead, our future depends on acting now for the long term. NAB is embedding sustainability in how we support our customers and do business. These efforts were recognized last month when NAB became the highest scoring bank in Australia and within the top 10 banks globally on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
NAB has also been the only Australian bank recognized at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow with the Prince of Wales Terra Carta Seal for our progress towards a sustainable future. Clearly, there is a long way to go, but these acknowledgments are testament to the people at NAB who are working to make a positive difference for future generations. Colleagues have rallied around customers and communities faced with floods, bushfires, cyclones, and other natural disaster. NAB has provided more than AUD 4 million in disaster relief packages. In addition, we have awarded AUD 1.2 million in NAB Foundation grants in the past year to help more than 100 communities better prepare for and recover from natural disasters. More recently, we have responded quickly to support customers impacted by floods in New South Wales and Queensland and cyclones in Western Australia.
Climate change is an area that all Australians need to engage in. We all have a part to play, and we certainly recognize our role. As the chair said, we're the only major Australian bank to have released a detailed policy to cap lending to oil and gas industry and reduce exposures in line with Net Zero 2050. NAB has a strong history of leading on climate action. Our corporate and institutional bank team has been at the forefront of the development of sustainable and social bonds, ESG-linked derivatives, sustainability-linked loans, and asset-backed securities. While removing and reducing carbon emission is the primary objective, creating a transparent and liquid marketplace for voluntary carbon credits will play an important role in achieving net zero emissions by 2050. NAB has joined with three international banks to develop a global carbon platform using distributed ledger technology.
We have provided transparency around the decisions and actions we are taking to support our customers and communities as they make the transition to net zero emissions by 2050. Our policy is informed by science. We see significant opportunity for the bank to work with and support our customers to decarbonize while also building resilience to the worst impacts of climate change. As Australia's largest agri-bank, we're also focused on helping our farmers reduce their emissions, manage physical climate risks and biodiversity, and support the use of natural capital. With a twin focus on the needs of customers and colleagues, NAB will achieve consistent performance over the long term. We are doing what's needed to achieve these ambitions, and I'm pleased for shareholders that we were able to again increase dividends this year, as Phil has indicated.
We also continue to look at reducing shares on issue to deliver greater returns. To conclude, I thank all shareholders for your investment in and support of NAB. Your support has helped us be there for customers as Australia embarks on a period of business-led economic growth. Thank you to NAB's executives, leaders, and colleagues throughout the bank who have supported customers and each other over the last 12 months. I also wish to acknowledge the work of the Chair and the Directors. They've both challenged and supported me and my executives to make NAB a better bank. As Phil said, we're pleased to have grown from the fourth-largest bank in Australia by market cap to the second-largest bank. NAB has good momentum as we continue to grow. Thank you for being here today, and I'll now hand back to our Chair.
Thank you, Ross. I'll now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. The notice of meeting was made available to shareholders in November, and I propose that it be taken as read. Voting on all resolutions today will be carried out by way of a poll, and Computershare will act as the independent returning officer. I have already declared the poll open on all resolutions. Items 2, 3, 4A, 4B, and 5A are resolutions to be voted on at today's meeting. Item 5B is a conditional item and will only be put to the meeting if item 5A is passed. For item 5A to be passed, at least 75% of the eligible votes cast on that item would need to be in favor of that resolution. During the meeting, we will display the direct and proxy votes for each item received in advance of the meeting.
In the spirit of transparency, we will show the votes on the conditional item even if that item is not formally put to the meeting. Where the Chair of the meeting has been nominated as a shareholder's proxy, all open and available proxies will be voted in favor of items 2, 3, 4A, and 4B, and against Items 5A and 5B. There are voting restrictions for some resolutions, as outlined in the notice of meeting, which apply to those who have an interest in the resolutions and certain of their related parties or associates. The poll will be closed 10 minutes after the end of the meeting to allow time for those who did not vote earlier in the meeting to do so. A reminder to this effect will be given just before the meeting is formally closed.
As the poll on all items will remain open until then, we will not be able to show the final voting results during the course of the meeting. As Louise said, we will announce the results of the AGM on the ASX platform and on the AGM page of our website later today. If you haven't already done so, I encourage you to submit your questions now. I ask you that you hold questions related to climate change, including on our policy positions and our disclosures, until item 5A, so that we can keep related topics together. I turn to the first item of business, the consideration of the financial statements and reports. The Corporations Act requires the directors to lay before the annual general meeting the financial report, the directors' report, and the auditor's report for the last financial year.
Virginia, do we have any questions for the board or the auditors on the first item of business, consideration of the financial statements and reports?
Thank you, Chair. We have a question from Christine Hayden, Volunteer Monitor on behalf of the Australian Shareholders' Association. We would like to congratulate NAB on the work they have done this year. We believe meaningful change has taken place and is reflected in the financial results. In terms of acquisitions, we note that NAB paid AUD 261 million for 86 400 Holdings Limited, which we understand links the UBank business to the 86 400 technical platform. Can you please expand on the acquisition, particularly where the platform fits with NAB online banking?
Thank you. Thank you, Christine, and thank you for your compliments to the NAB management team. It's much appreciated. The acquisition of 86 400 was an opportunity to give some more critical mass and momentum to the existing NAB UBank business. It will not be integrated with the traditional NAB branded retail business, but rather we will be merging the UBank business and 86 400 to be a digital-only bank, and one that we expect to be quite agile and prepared to take on the emerging neobanks in this sector. That is the role of it. The legal position is that we've converted the 86 400 business to now trade under the NAB license. That was done on the eighth of December.
In the first half next year, we expect to launch the integrated business under the revised UBank brand, but using the 86 400 technology. We have a very strong executive, Philippa Watson, who's leading the integrated business, and we're expecting strong progress there. It's a good, strong business. UBank was growing in any event, but the momentum that we get from 86 400 should propel that further and position us well, and that's the strate`gy that we're pursuing. Virginia.
Chair, we have a question from Christine Hayden, volunteer monitor on behalf of the Australian Shareholders' Association. We understand that 94% of customer activity is now online and 48% of home lending on video. What is the current state of the branch network, and can we expect more closures? Also, please comment on ATMs and the take-up of digital wallets.
Thank you. Thank you, Christine. Your observation, of course, is quite correct, which is our customers are making a very rapid migration to digital banking, and that was accelerated, of course, during the various COVID restrictions over the last 18 months. As at now, we have around 566 retail branches in Australia and 108 in New Zealand. Of that 566 Australian branches, about 283 are in regional areas. Now, those numbers are down over the last couple of years. But I think importantly, and hopefully you've noticed, our customers will have noticed, that in many cases, we've been able to refresh the look of our branches, many of which were looking quite tired a year or two ago.
I'm very pleased as I've gone around both Sydney and Melbourne, to see the number of new and refreshed branches, even though in many cases they will have a smaller footprint, of course, because of the lower numbers of people that are coming into those branches. Even though there will continue to be changes in the network, and more likely to be closures than expansion, I would remind customers that we have a relationship with Australia Post, which allows for the Bank@Post service to be accessed at 3,500 outlets around Australia. That's the shape of the network and what we're doing with the network. I think you can also expect a similar pattern with ATMs.
We have reinvested in recent years in new ATMs, but of course with the declining use of cash and of course the access to other banks' ATMs at no cost, we are finding a lower need for large numbers of ATMs out in the network. In fact, even the number of ATM transactions has declined by over 50% in the last three years. Hopefully that resolves or answers those questions. Virginia, do we have any other questions?
Chair, we have a further question from Christine Hayden, volunteer monitor on behalf of the Australian Shareholders' Association. The PayPal and New Payments Platform facilitates a money transfer from PayPal wallet to any Australian bank via NAB. Is that correct? And can you please expand on this new initiative?
I can, although I'm not sure I'm the best person to expand on that one. Ross, is it okay if I ask you to comment on the PayPal wallet initiative?
Yeah, thank you, Phil. PayPal has effectively become a very interesting and good way of people making payments. It can be made between PayPal into other banking systems, just like a credit card does for a, be it a Visa or a Mastercard. At this stage, I'm not sure about the piece around the wallet, but it's certainly a very strong payments vehicle now that is picking up quite a bit of market share from payments perspective in this marketplace. I don't know the answer about the wallet, Phil.
Yeah. Look, I believe it's true. I don't have enough detail to go any deeper into it, I'm sorry. Perhaps Christine, you can approach the investor relations people, and we can get a more fulsome answer for you there. Virginia.
Chair, we have an audio question from Johanna Kriz Gardner, shareholder. Please go ahead with your question.
My question is about our exposure to energy and resources. Page 36 of our annual review shows our lending to coal mining and oil and gas extraction. Having read through the annual and supplementary reports of our major competitors, ANZ, CBA and Westpac, it's apparent that our disclosures are quite limited by comparison. Compared to us, CBA and Westpac both disclose their exposure to the energy value chain. For instance, these banks not only disclose exposure to coal mining, but also to coal ports and rail. All three of the other banks also disclose exposure to not only oil and gas extraction, but transportation, refining and retail, including LNG terminals, for example. My question is, when will NAB publish its exposure to the energy value chain as our major competitors have done?
Thank you. I think I indicated in my opening comments that we would be inviting questions on our climate-related exposures at item five A. I just refer you back to the comments I made in the speech about the plans that we have over the next year to increase our exposures across a whole range of industry sectors, not just energy and resources. Virginia, do you have any questions on item one?
Chair, I have a question from the Finance Sector Union of Australia. The Finance Sector Union has released a report titled Working for Nothing: How NAB Robs Employees Pay, Health and Family Time. The report details the experiences of over 1,200 NAB employees suffering severe health and well-being consequences as a result of exploitative hours of work practices. One respondent noted, "I almost self-harmed one night driving home. I drove my car off the road deliberately to try and have an accident to stop the insanity, but not so much to die." The NAB Board of Directors has a duty of care to their employees and ultimate responsibility for providing a healthy and safe work environment. How then do you explain the lack of due diligence and failure in governance resulting in the hardships experienced by so many NAB employees?
Will the board today acknowledge the harms caused to these workers by the bank's pursuit of profit and agree to remove the risks from workplaces and to the hundreds of millions in financial compensation owed to these workers?
Thanks. Thanks, Virginia. Let me just say from the outset that the board places the health, safety, and wellbeing of our employees as an absolute highest priority. We have a legal duty to do so, but that's not why we do it. We do it because we want to provide a healthy and productive work environment for the 30,000-plus people that work for us. We are concerned by the statements that were included in the report, and I can assure all of our shareholders that this week the board has spent extensive time with the management team working to ensure that we can provide the work environment that our employees expect. Ross, I'm gonna ask if you can just make a couple of comments yourself about the work that we're doing in that regard.
Thank you, Phil, and could I just reiterate, we do take absolutely seriously the health and wellbeing of all of our colleagues at work. We have noted the report, and have responded to the union on their report, seeking more information as well. We do our own surveying to make sure that we're keeping very clearly in touch with what the thoughts and feelings of our staff are. In that survey, there are many health and wellbeing questions that actually don't reflect exactly the same results, but we take it absolutely seriously. Over the last two years, it's been very difficult for our colleagues.
Many of them, or the vast majority of them, have been working from home, in circumstances where they have, you know, their own family members they're looking after as well as working, and we have acknowledged that and also put in place many services for them, that have been put in place to help them with health and wellbeing, over this very trying period of time. We have many services in place. We also have a monthly meeting we're regularly attended by, on Zoom, 1,000-2,000 of our colleagues who are leaders of the business, and we emphasize at those sessions the services available to them. We also have many areas that they can take up their concerns if they feel the workload is just too high.
One, their leader, two, our HR division, three, they can take them through to our whistleblowing service, which has an internal service as well as external if they don't feel comfortable with that. We do monitor every one of the inquiries we get and look to help our colleagues. We take this very seriously, Phil.
Thanks. Thanks, Ross. If I can just also preempt the question on pay. This is also an issue that we have spent significant time on this year, and I think shareholders will be aware that we have provided for well over AUD 100 million to fix some payroll errors that have been uncovered. Virginia, do you have another question?
Chair, we have a question from Henrik K. "What is going to be done to crack down on the use of unpaid overtime in NAB? I strongly believe that these staff must be paid, and that management be told that this practice is abuse of staff and will not be condoned.
Thank you. I think, again, I can say that the board is also concerned at allegations that excessive overtime, excessive unpaid overtime is being worked. I won't get Ross to expand further because I think many of the comments that he's just made on the previous question apply also to this one. Just I want to make very clear to our own people and to our shareholders that the board and the senior management team do not expect excessive unpaid overtime to be a natural part of the working environment at NAB, and we are actively seeking to ensure that it is not. We do take that issue very seriously, and thank you for raising the question, Mr. K. Virginia.
Chair, we have an audio question from Jack Bertolus. Shareholder, please go ahead with your question.
Hi, I'm Jack Bertolus from Market Forces. Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency found that reducing emissions to net zero by 2050 leaves no room for new fossil fuel supply projects. When NAB updated its oil and gas policy last month, it left the door wide open to continued funding for these sorts of projects and the companies pursuing them. In fact, as NAB was announcing the updated policy, it was also reportedly arranging funds for the acquisition of Pluto Train 2. That acquisition enabled Woodside to press ahead with the Scarborough Gas Project, the largest greenfield gas development in Australia in a decade. Over its lifetime, emissions from the Scarborough Pluto project would total 1.6 billion tons of CO2, equivalent to 15 coal-fired power stations running for 30 years.
In light of the overwhelming evidence that there's no room for new fossil fuel projects if we're to achieve the Paris Agreement and net zero by 2050, what evidence can NAB produce that enabling an additional 1.6 billion tons of CO2 is in any way compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees? I'd just make the point that NAB's financial reporting states that the bank recognizes climate change as a material business risk, and therefore this question is entirely appropriate for consideration at item one.
Thank you, Jack. Despite your assertion that it's entirely appropriate for item 1, it is entirely inappropriate for item 5A. That's where I'll be dealing with how we reconcile our oil and gas position, which as you'll appreciate, has been made very clear and it fully reconciles with the IEA, and I'll be dealing with that at 5A. Thank you. Virginia.
Chair, we have received a question from Mr. Raymond Kenneth Mitchell. One part of this question has been excluded as it referred to an individual. These questions are on behalf of current and former staff. How many whistleblower transcript complaints have been erased over the last five years? How many staff have gone on stress leave in retail Victoria in the last five years? Do you have confidence in the Executive General Manager, Retail for NAB? If one of your senior leaders says they don't, they have not sent an email and two affidavits says she did, would NAB's IT department investigate to see if the senior manager was dishonest?
Thank you for the question. As you can appreciate, this is very difficult for me to answer on the spot because I have no idea of the circumstances of the underlying incidents you refer to, but can I just say anything involving an email trail, we do and we are required to retain all emails and on many occasions, we have to search emails to support, for example, for discovery actions, for court cases and so on. Yes, the answer is that NAB's IT department is able to investigate emails.
I don't have specific answers to how many people have taken stress leave in Retail Victoria and, but I can assure you that it would be highly unlikely for a whistleblower transcript to have been erased because that simply would not be allowed for. The answer is that the circumstances really don't lend itself to being dealt with in a meeting like this, but I'm certainly happy that these issues can be taken up. Of course, whistleblower items can be raised with anyone, including myself or a chair of our audit committee or our internal auditor, any of whom are happy to receive whistleblower complaints. Sorry, I can't do anything more with that question at the moment, Virginia, so perhaps you could move on to another one.
Chair, we have an audio question from Cherie Carlisle- Ritchey Lowe. Shareholder, please go ahead with your question.
With regards to our target to provide AUD 7 billion in environmental financing between 2015 and 2025, I understand the definition of environmental finance includes funding for a variety of activities, including waste management, industrial refitting and water treatment. How much will be directed towards renewable energy?
Thank you. Thank you for the question. Your assertion is correct. It includes a wide range of sustainable financing initiatives, and my belief is that so far AUD 11 billion has gone onto renewable energies and significantly more is planned. Virginia.
Chair, we have a question from Mr. Henrik Kaye. In relation to the purchase of the Citibank, will products be rebranded as NAB?
Yes. Thank you for that question. The intention is that the acquisition of the Citibank businesses, that all of those products will be fully integrated with their NAB counterpart products and will be rebranded as NAB products. That transaction has been approved by the competition regulator, but is still waiting approval from, I think, APRA and the treasurer.
It's unlikely that we're gonna have more clarity on the certainty of that transaction until the new year. The answer to your specific question is yes, it will be.
Chair, we have an audio question from Karen Large. Shareholder, please go ahead with your question.
Oh, thank you. I have two questions which relate to material business risk. The International Energy Agency stated earlier this year that no new fossil fuel projects should be approved in order to achieve net zero by 2050. In light of this, when will NAB continue to provide no further finance to companies such as Woodside and BHP who are planning to develop the controversial Scarborough gas field off the Western Australian coast? My second question, which is related to the first one, NAB's recently released oil and gas policy includes a commitment to only consider financing greenfield gas extraction in Australia, where it plays a role in underpinning national energy security. Can you confirm that this means NAB won't provide financing for Woodside and BHP's controversial Scarborough gas development, which is predominantly for export? Thank you.
Thank you, and I will provide answers to those questions at item five A. Thank you.
Chair, we have a question from Mrs. Natalie Camino. My question is regarding the remediation of employees and conflict of interest of the auditors. The first part of my question is about the wage theft of NAB's long-term, part-time working women due to a payroll system error. The second is about KPMG having a conflict of interest as the advisor to NAB regarding not fully remediating these employees, while also being responsible for NAB code of conduct investigations into this matter. NAB states publicly it will pay its employees fairly, and it has a basic social obligation to do so. However, NAB decided to only remediate for 8 years, despite knowing part-time working women have been incorrectly paid and denied their full superannuation benefits for more than 15 years. KPMG advised NAB on this decision. It was raised as a breach of code of conduct.
KPMG is the advisor on the code of conduct hotline, and has not investigated or even responded to this case in more than five months. Would the board please comment?
Well, thank you. Can I just make a point? The first line of the question referred to the conflict of interest of the auditors. KPMG is not NAB's auditor. However, I think it's right to say that KPMG administers the hotline.
The hotline.
Yeah, it does. Thank you. So I do appreciate, but I just want to make it clear that KPMG are not the bank's auditors. I'm unaware of the specific allegation that's being made in this question. What I can say is we've had an extensive review of payroll errors over the course of the last 18 months. We've paid AUD 109 million out to staff, which included 22,395 current staff and 26,623 former staff. We've been regularly updated on that review, and if there are continuing issues with that review, the board would be very happy to acknowledge those and address those. If you have got specifics, I would invite you to send them in either to the board or to Susan Ferrier, the Chief People Officer at NAB.
Thank you.
Chair, we have a question from Denmark Dream Proprietary Limited. A couple of weeks ago, the news reported an ex-NAB business manager was jailed for stealing AUD 437 thousand to pay off his debts and to fund his indulgent lifestyle. This was described as a carefully managed and premeditated fraud. He was able to create 51 accounts and business loans using current clients' names without the clients' knowledge or authorization, where he successfully transferred funds to himself over 172 unauthorized transactions. The crown prosecutor said he exploited the trust placed in him, and he went to extreme lengths to set up the loans. He devised sophisticated methods to avoid detection, and he was able to do that due to his senior position within the bank. How did these unlawful transactions go undetected by NAB's own systems?
Has NAB investigated if there are any further circumstances like this within the bank?
Thank you. I believe that came from Rita. Is that right?
That's correct.
Rita, thank you. Thank you for raising that, issue. The board is very concerned at issues of this and very concerned where we see areas in which our systems let us and let our shareholders down. I think, if I can go back to the self-assessment document that we published in 2018, we identified a range of issues where there was not enough rigor or discipline in our systems and processes. Progressively, under Ross' leadership, the team has identified a whole range of areas where we've been able to improve our controls environment and to improve our control, in particular, around fraud and financial crime. It is an ongoing piece of work, and our systems are not yet perfect.
You can be assured as a shareholder that we are doing our very best to improve and to make our control environment as industrial strength as we're able to do so. Thank you for the question. Virginia.
Chair, we have an audio question from Dr. Mary Ann Heath. Shareholder, please go ahead with your question.
Thank you. National Australia Bank sustainability statement says that National Australia Bank is working with its customers to support their implementation of low carbon transition plans so that NAB will achieve a net zero emissions lending portfolio by 2050. Can you explain how National Australia Bank supports the implementation of low carbon transition plans when it continues to support new fossil fuel projects, for example, Whitehaven Coal?
Thank you. I intend to deal with that at section five or item 5A. Virginia, do you have another question?
Chair, we have a question from Rob Roseby. It's an audio question. Please go ahead with your question, shareholder.
My name is Dr. Rob Roseby, and I'm a children's chest specialist, and my question is driven by concern about the many excess cases of asthma in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria due to coal burning power stations. In the light of such health risks, the World Health Organization has called for coal to be phased out in the OECD by 2030, and I worry about the banks supporting investment in potentially stranded assets. I note the chair's comments re not supporting new thermal coal investments, and thank you for the work thus far regarding decarbonization and NAB's future focus. My question is, will NAB rule out financing AGL Energy if it sticks to its plan to continue running Loy Yang A until 2048?
Thank you for your comments, and I think you've answered the question yourself. Normally I'd have asked you to wait until 5 p.m., but I think you've already identified that we are not gonna be lending on thermal coal past 2030. I think that answers the question in any event. Virginia, do we have another question?
Chair, we have a further question from Denmark Dream Proprietary Limited. The financial crimes regulator, AUSTRAC, launched formal investigations into the bank in June. AUSTRAC highlighted potential serious and ongoing non-compliance relating to customer identification procedures, ongoing customer due diligence, and compliance with NAB's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing program. AUSTRAC expressed doubts that the bank has the necessary systems and processes to comply with its AML/CTF obligations under its financial crime risk capabilities. AUSTRAC is not considering several civil penalty proceedings at this stage but said it could take action such as civil penalty orders, enforceable undertakings, infringement notices, and remedial directions. When speaking to the House of Representatives' Standing Committee on Economics in September, the CEO said NAB will be responding to AUSTRAC shortly. Could you explain why these significant breaches and failures continue throughout NAB, which unfairly impact shareholders? When will the continued wrongdoing stop?
This question is from Rita.
Yes. Thank you, Rita. Thank you for raising this because this is an issue which I think is of interest to, should be of interest to all shareholders and has received considerable attention from the board over the course of the last couple of years. We were concerned that our AML control environment was not at the standard that we would expect or the community would expect, and considerable effort has gone into that over recent years. I think as part of the information disclosures that we published at the time of the AUSTRAC investigation being launched, we articulated that around AUD 800 million had been spent over the last 2-3 years to improve that environment and to remediate weaknesses that had been identified.
The AUSTRAC investigation consisted of a significant request for information that came from AUSTRAC, and over recent months, we've gone to exhaustive lengths to ensure that all of AUSTRAC's requests have been met. I can advise shareholders that we have now fully answered all of the questions that have been raised by AUSTRAC, and AUSTRAC is considering our responses to that. We're not waiting for AUSTRAC. We've made a number of commitments to AUSTRAC to upgrade our environment even further, and ongoing work is underway within the company. We are determined to get leading standards of financial crime control in our company as the best way of keeping our customers and our shareholders safe from financial crime. I expect that work to be ongoing.
Thank you for raising the question because it is of significance.
Chair, we have an audio question from Peter Starr. Shareholder, please go ahead with your question.
Yes. Good morning, Phil. Morning, Ross. In light of the bank executive who was charged with the 51 counts, what has been done to fix up customers' names that were damaged and their identity?
Thank you.
Peter, thanks very much for your question. Well, we do investigate every one of these cases, similar to the one that was raised, and we do go back and put right with the customer, wherever we possibly can, and including, making sure that their security and, identity is, put back into place for them where it is, has been compromised. We do work with each of the customers in that, on that basis. You know, we put them back in the place that they should have been. Some of these, as the court said, these cases are very sophisticated, and they're very complex, and it does take time, but we also take the lessons out of each of these and read across into other situations in the bank, as you'd expect us to do.
Thank you.
Chair, we have a question from Mr. Steven David Main. CBA recently completed an AUD 6 billion off-market buyback at a 14% discount to the market price, with the fully franked dividend component being 74.6% of the buyback price. It was flooded with almost AUD 330 billion worth of stock tendered into the offer. Westpac is also attempting a similar AUD 3.5 billion off-market buyback, but it has bombed so far because the dividend component was set to be less than half. Has NAB investigated an off-market buyback, and given our franking credits balance, what proportion of such a buyback could be a fully franked dividend as opposed to a capital return, as this seems to be the key metric driving whether these off-market buybacks are worthwhile and popular with shareholders?
Thanks, Steven. The point you make is correct, which is that the value of an off-market buyback to shareholders is made up of the franking credits that are made available, and that depends on the deemed dividend and the capital return component. The biggest driver of that is the franking credit balance. I'm gonna ask our Chief Financial Officer, Gary Lennon to explain to you why we chose to do an on-market buyback as opposed to an off-market buyback, and it's very much driven by these reasons.
Thanks, Chair, and thank you, Steven, for the question. It is a relatively complex area. We certainly considered the best mechanism for shareholders to execute in the buyback. This takes into account costs of different methods of execution and as you've highlighted, Steven, franking credit balance is a key part of this as well. The optimum approach for buybacks we've determined at this stage, albeit we leave the door open to change down the track for our AUD 2.5 billion buyback we've announced, is an off-market buyback. We see that as the most optimal approach, and it does have limited impact or no impact on franking credits by using this method.
Sometime down the track, where we did see the opportunity because we did have excess franking credits, that's something we would also look at.
Thank you. It's a important question, but it is all about the available franking, as Gary has indicated. Virginia.
Chair, we have a question from Mr. Christian Bjerregaard Langeberg and Mrs. Ding Ning Sun. I refer to the statement that NAB is prioritizing and investing in improving security. Why then has the bank ceased the storage of safety boxes which allowed customers to store personal papers safely away from home?
Thanks for the question. This has been a difficult issue for us for many years. Sadly, the safety box as a service was a very unsatisfactory one for many of our customers and for the bank because it was very hard to control. We had many abandoned security packets over the years. People would leave and never come back for the items, and it created a very difficult control environment. I'm afraid that this is an area where it's highly unlikely we would want to reestablish that service. Importantly, as we're making the changes to our retail network to modernize it for the current environment, there simply isn't a place for us to be able to offer this service.
Now, I know that there are commercial operators who are providing safe custody services outside of the banking system, and if you do have a requirement for such a service, I'm sure that you'll be able to access one of those. I'm sorry, this is not something that the bank's going to be able to do in the future.
Virginia.
Chair, we have a question from Mr. William Wong. On 7 December 2021, there was an article on the Australian Financial Review which revealed that NAB has formed a culture of forcing staff to work excessive hours, and workers were expected to work additional hours to meet the excessive demands of their employer. As employees are shareholders and internal stakeholders, can you please explain how NAB is going to meet its duty of care of its employees going forward?
Thank you. I think I indicated earlier when I answered a similar question that the board does take its obligations to its employees extraordinarily seriously, and we do not accept that we should have a culture of working excessive hours in the company. As I think I indicated, even this week, we've been in conversations to make sure that Ross and his management team take all due steps to ensure that we have a healthy and productive working environment and not an oppressive working environment. We'll continue to work on the culture of that work culture environment to ensure that we do not have staff working excessive hours. Not in your question, but in one of the earlier questions, the allegation that these were excessive unpaid hours. Neither of those are acceptable.
Thank you for the question.
Chair, we have an audio question from Glenn Walker. Shareholder, please go ahead with your question.
Thank you. The United Nations and International Energy Agency have both clearly said that Australia needs to stop burning coal for power generation by 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. NAB, unfortunately, has the worst coal power generation policy of all the banks, with just a very small 45% emission reduction target by 2030 for power generation customers. Now, this is different to the thermal coal mining policy. Given the bank supports the Paris Agreement, will the board now commit to urgently updating NAB's climate policies as soon as possible and commit to not funding companies burning coal beyond 2030 in Australia?
Specifically, will the board commit to not funding AGL, Australia's biggest climate polluter, or its proposed spin-off company, Accel Energy, unless that company brings forward the closure of its coal burning power stations from 2035 and 2048 to at least 2030? I'm asking this question now because climate change is a big material risk to the business. Just yesterday, the Reserve Bank flagged cyber attacks and climate change as the top two financial risks to the banking sector. I don't think it's right to just push it back to an item about a separate shareholder resolution.
Thank you. There is a shareholder resolution on the white paper, and that shareholder resolution is about our climate disclosures and our climate plans. It is the appropriate place with which to deal with that item. Thank you.
Chair, we have a question from National Nominees Limited. This question is from Stuart Palmer of Australian Ethical Investment. The bank's November 2021 announcement and culture review report noted that meaningful culture change takes time, but that the board considers the right foundations to be in place. With new compliance and regulatory issues and action continuing to surface, how does the board and management assess whether it is on track with its change program?
Thank you. Culture change has been very important part of our program over the last three years. Again, I'll refer back to the 2018 self-assessment document where we identified that a culture change was required in the company. We have been monitoring through regular staff surveys and through other measures, particularly focused on customer feedback as well, to ensure that we had the right culture and the right foundations for that culture. Yes, we are finding new issues, and frankly, I hope that we continue to find new issues because part of the culture change that we have been driving is encouraging people, where they see things that aren't right, to raise them very openly. With that, you have to accept that, expect rather, that you're going to find new issues.
The real challenge is how we deal with them, and that's what I expect of the leadership team of this bank, which is that we'll continue to hunt for issues on any front where it doesn't meet the standards that we aspire to, and we'll raise those issues, and we'll get them resolved. We believe we are making progress. We have not declared victory in that sense, because we do appreciate that culture change is a long-term project. We're very encouraged at the progress that's been made, in particular over the last two years under Ross's leadership. Thank you for the question. Virginia.
Chair, we have a question from Erebor Proprietary Limited. NAB's results no longer include reporting of economic profit. What was NAB's economic profit in financial year 2021? Will NAB commit to reporting economic profit as ANZ does?
Economic profit is not a recognized accounting measure, but is a useful measure that investment analysts do sometimes use. We've not embraced it as a measure for our purposes. We could do so, and we might have a conversation about that. But at the moment, we have no plans to publish economic profit. I would encourage any financially capable shareholders who wish to calculate it themselves that it's easily done yourself by using the earnings data that we provide. But it's not something that we're intending to do ourselves. Thank you.
Chair, we have an audio question from Dr Jenny Huang. Shareholder, please go ahead with your question.
Thank you. I'm Dr Jenny Huang. I'm a general practitioner. As a doctor, I have been seeing worsening heart and lung health and excessive deaths in all ages in my patients related to the coal and gas projects. Yes, these projects emit polluting gases causing inflammatory disease processes in all of our bodies. We can now see that. It's actually publicly widely known that NAB is investing in these. As a shareholder, I am increasingly concerned about the financial risk and the reputation of NAB, and more so now that I'm realizing these projects are so widely known. Can the board clarify, please, your conflicting value commitments? Thank you.
Thank you. We have a very clear policy on these items. We've published updated targets, and we'll be discussing them further when we get to item 5A on the order paper. Virginia.
Chair, we have an audio question from Austin Catano. Please go ahead with your question, shareholder.
Hi, I'm Austin, a young person from Melbourne. I'm from School Strike 4 Climate, a national organization that has young people from all across Australia, with our biggest strike getting 300,000 young people involved. I, like so many young people from all over Australia, are concerned about climate change. Young people will see the effects of climate change caused by fossil fuels. In October, School Strike 4 Climate wrote a letter placed in the Australian Financial Review, calling for our major banks to stop funding expansion of the polluting fossil fuel industry, and instead focus on renewable energy and transitioning workers to sustainable jobs. Shortly after this, we wrote a letter directly to NAB requesting a meeting with your CEO. Unlike other major banks and super funds who accepted the offer, NAB declined.
My question to NAB is: Why don't you want to meet and understand the concerns of Australia's young people and your next generation of customers?
Happy to take the question. Well, let me just answer, firstly. First of all, thank you, Austin, for raising the question. Can I just say that everyone on the board of National Australia Bank is also concerned about the outlook for the climate, and that's why we have a very clear policy position. Ross, you might want to comment on the approach.
Yeah, no. Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you, Austin, for raising the question. I did receive the letter, and I talked to our team that we're leading on the sustainability of the bank, and they, I understand, have reached out to you to have a conversation so that they can actually see what areas of interest and concern you had so they could answer it. Given that we've put out our new policy at the time, we thought it was best that they had that conversation so that you understood our position going forward and we could answer any questions you had. Delighted that you can get 30,000 young people really engaged in the climate issue because it's such a big issue for everybody.
We're finding that 32,000 of our own staff are very engaged in it and wanting to make sure the organization is one that's engaged in it with customers as well. Our team are very happy to engage.
Virginia.
Chair, we have a further question from Mr. Stephen David Mayne. Could Ross McEwan please comment on the number of branches that have closed since he joined NAB as CEO? ANZ said yesterday that it has closed 150 branches over the past two years, leaving it with 421. We currently have 566 branches, as the chair commented earlier. What was the figure two years ago, and why do we have 145 more branches than ANZ? Also, what is our approach with branch closures? Are we generally waiting until leases expire before closing a branch?
I'll probably be able to answer this one myself, although I may look to Ross at one point. In the last two years, we've closed 88 branches. Where that stands versus ANZ, I guess I'll have to leave for you to make that judgment. Yes, we have 566. One of the reasons we would have more branches than ANZ would be that we have a greater representation in rural and regional Australia, and therefore that means we would have a larger number of smaller points of presence. That would explain at least some of that difference. It's not strictly true that we would wait for a lease term for making a closure decision, but obviously a lease maturity becomes a reinvestment decision as to whether we extend or not.
It is often the trigger for a closure to occur. I think that pretty much answers it. Ross, I don't know if I need to ask you any further on it.
No, you're right with the numbers, Phil.
Yeah.
We've closed down 88 and actually opened 4 in that same period of time.
Yeah
The net numbers are.
I think that's the important thing is some of the newer small footprint branches, which give us a much more modern look, but don't require the same size and scale of the traditional branch have. Some of those are very attractive. So I've been lucky enough to visit a few of them in the last few weeks. Virginia.
Chair, we have two related questions from Erabor Proprietary Limited. Chairman, you have noted that the AML/KYC processes were not in accordance with community expectations. However, isn't the issue that NAB's AML/KYC processes were not in accordance with the law? NAB failed to find these breaches of the law, despite having told the market it undertook a comprehensive review of processes following the CBA independent risk review and issues reported to the Hayne Royal Commission. Why are any executives being paid bonuses when NAB is not able to do something as basic as complying with the law?
Thank you. We have a comprehensive anti-money laundering policy framework, which is what we are required to do by law, and the issues that were identified where we were not fully compliant with our own framework. That work of resolving this commenced at around that time that you've identified. Well, in fact, commenced before the Hayne Royal Commission, and is well advanced, and I think we are hopeful that within the next 12 months, we will be largely complete on that work.
Complete, yes.
Some of it involved remediation work of going back to customers that had been onboarded historically, and that's why it's taken some time to remediate the old. What we should be assured of is that our ongoing onboarding of new customers and our ongoing transaction monitoring is of a very high standard, as we speak today. Thank you for that, Virginia.
Chair, we have an audio question from Peter Starr. Please go ahead with your question, shareholder. Shareholder, please go ahead with your question. As we haven't heard from Peter Starr, I'll proceed to the next question. Chair, we have a question from Erabor Proprietary Limited. Congratulations to NAB for becoming accredited as a data recipient under CDR. When does NAB expect to become an active data recipient, and what benefits will be offered to customers as a result of becoming an ADR?
Thank you. That work is still relatively formative, but I will on this occasion ask Ross to comment.
Thank you very much and great question, given that data is such an important issue for both customers and a bank. Our view in becoming a data recipient, meaning we can take data on the approval of customers into our systems to actually use that data, help them with their full picture, and how do we help them with their financial needs going forward, I think that is gonna be very important to the bank. But it's gotta be focused on needs of customers and helping customers, put them in a better position, and that's what we're working on with all of our systems and processes. It's also why we've had all of our senior team focused on what data do we need to help customers make quicker decisions for customers.
For example, through our home lending, you can take the data in, and make a decision much faster than if you're having to extract it manually. We will be an active participant in use of data, but only as it meets the needs of customers.
Thank you, Virginia.
Chair, we have a question from Faraway Proprietary Limited. Thank you, Phil, to you, the board, and the bank staff for the progress made on NAB's transition. Could you comment on the bank's level of impaired assets, please, which appear to be trending higher?
Thank you. I think in fact, I think over recent months the impaired assets have actually trended slightly lower, but that's largely because as we've come back out of lockdown, some of the consumer arrears have been falling. Nonetheless, I should be cautious here because what we do expect is that there will be some business impairments come to the fore simply because of the size of the shock to the economy that both last year's and this year's lockdowns, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, will have had on a number of business customers. It is something where we are cautious. You will note, of course, that we raised forward-looking provisions last year, and in the main we have not released those as of yet.
We do hold provisions against expected losses going forward. That is something that we're keeping a very close watch on, so thank you for the question. Virginia.
Chair, we have a question from Denmark Dream Proprietary Limited. ASIC states during COVID-19, banks provide consumers deferral of mortgage repayments to six months and agreed extensions, and they must do all things necessary to ensure that credit activities under their license are engaged efficiently, honestly, and fairly, and to deliver consumers appropriate and fair outcomes by contacting consumers prior to repayment deferrals expiring and providing consumers critical information to assist their decision-making. ASIC advises contract variations of repayment terms as opposed to new contracts on different terms, also capitalization of interest, may result in an increase to credit contract balance but does not necessarily increase the contract credit limit. Home loan debt consolidation to reduce repayments across a credit portfolio likely increases the home loan credit limit significantly, increasing the consumer's risk exposure to loss of their home, which responsible lending applies.
What is NAB doing where it has not acted efficiently, honestly and fairly during COVID?
Thank you. We had, through the whole COVID period, dealing with loan deferrals, we were acutely conscious of the potential for deferrals to increase the risks to our customers. It's one of the reasons why, when the first lockdowns were being lifted last year, we took the view that we should not automatically extend deferrals because of the effect that it potentially would have, just as you've identified. We have reached out on an active basis to ensure that we have dialogue with customers, so that customers are fully informed of the risks of extending deferrals where that has been unnecessary. It is something in fact we take very seriously. We as you say, we do have an obligation to act efficiently, honestly and fairly, and we take that obligation very seriously.
It is a case where every customer's situation is different, and we've tried to have that connection with customers. I think that answers the question. Virginia, do we have any other questions?
Chair, we have no further questions on this item of business.
Right. Well, if there are no further questions, then I'd declare the financial statements and reports have been received and considered at the meeting. The next item of business is item two, which is the re-election of Anne Loveridge as a director of National Australia Bank. This year, one director, Anne Loveridge, retires at this meeting in accordance with the company's constitution, and being eligible offers herself for re-election. If re-elected, this will be Anne's third term serving you on the board. Details of Anne's qualifications, career, experience and other interests are set out in the notice of meeting and in the directors' report. Anne will speak to you shortly about what she brings to the collective capability of the board. The board has undertaken an evaluation of Anne's performance and fully supports her re-election.
The board considers that Ann's extensive financial, regulatory reporting, risk management, remuneration, and people leadership experience are valuable contributions to the board's existing skills and experience. The board has also concluded that Ann is independent and has sufficient capacity to undertake the duties expected of a director of the company. Anne, would you like to address the meeting, please?
Thank you, Chair. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, fellow shareholders. As I offer myself for re-election to the board, I thought it would be useful to speak about two things, my experience and how I contribute to the board. I have experience across a range of organizations, small, medium and large, as well as the not-for-profit sector. I am a non-executive director at two other ASX-listed companies, nib and Platinum Asset Management, and I'm on the board of Destination NSW. Prior to joining the NAB board, I had a 30-year career in professional services, largely focused on the financial services sector. This included working as an audit partner, a business leader, and six years as deputy chair of PwC. Through these roles, I gained extensive audit, risk, and regulatory perspectives.
I also developed the business and provided leadership and development for partners and emerging leaders in the firm, as well as focusing on reward, recognition, and diversity for the firm more broadly. In my six years on the NAB board, I have served on the audit, customer, and remuneration committees. I chair the people and remuneration committee, which supports the board on remuneration matters. This committee has taken an active role through focusing on capability, leadership, accountabilities, and consequence management in addressing the rebuilding of the culture at NAB in the aftermath of the 2018 Royal Commission and the NAB self-assessment. This committee also has oversight of NAB's broader colleague strategy, which is aimed at strengthening people's capabilities, leadership, inclusion and diversity, and culture to support NAB's overall business strategy.
My experience on other boards and as a professional services partner and leader enables me to bring perspectives from other places and industries, and has provided me with the skills and experience to listen and constructively question and challenge management. Over the last six years, I have been able to devote the time necessary to the important work of the NAB board and committees, and I am confident that I will continue to do so. I would be honored to receive your support. Thank you.
Virginia, do we have any questions in relation to the re-election of Anne Loveridge?
Chair, we have a question from Mr. Steven David Main. There are no issues with Anne Loveridge's election, but on the question of director elections, could the chair please provide more detail on what happened with the announcement and then withdrawal of James Spenceley's appointment to the board? Was this due to proxy advisor or institutional shareholder concern? What was the recruitment process for James Spenceley? Did we use an external headhunter?
Thank you. Steven, thank you for raising the question. The appointment of James Spenceley, which was announced back in November, October, I think it was. We were looking for somebody to come onto the board with experience in technology, digital and data-driven transformations, business disruption and identified through the use of an external headhunter, to answer the last part of your question, yes. Identified James as having such experiences. After the announcement, two separate things happened. One is that we received feedback from some institutional shareholders who had experience of James from earlier businesses that he'd been involved in some years ago. He received feedback from shareholders and proxy advisors in respect of his other directorships.
After a conversation between us, we came to the mutual conclusion that it would not be wise for either he or us to pursue that appointment. We subsequently announced that he had withdrawn from that process. That's the background. I hope that answers your question. Virginia, are there any further questions?
Chair, we have an audio question from Peter Starr. Please go ahead with your question, shareholder.
Yes. Phil, given that Ms. Anne Loveridge is standing for re-election, and given that part of her focus is supposed to be on customers, I thought that the other director on the board, Ms. Ann Sherry, was looking after legacy cases and an update on legacy cases would be to the point here. Phil, please.
Yeah. I'm happy to take the question. I don't think it strictly relates to Anne's candidacy, but I'll take it in any event. We've resolved, working here off the, my memory of these numbers. I think we identified something like, over the last three years, it was around 60 or 62 total legacy cases that were being reviewed, under the supervision of the customer committee. As far as I'm aware, we've reached a point where effectively, I think it's 32 of the 62 have been resolved. There's one that's currently still being worked on, and I think the situation is that the remaining 29 that have been reviewed again are not being worked on any further because there doesn't look like there's any possibility of resolution. I hope that answers your question.
Essentially, that's where we have reached. We have closed consideration of the remaining 29 in the absence of any new information. Thank you for your question, Peter.
Chair, we have no further questions on this item of business.
Great. All right. Well, as there are no further questions, I'll now formally put the motion that Ms. Anne Loveridge be re-elected as a director of the company. Direct and proxy votes received in advance of the meeting for this item are now being displayed on the screen. Please record your vote now if you have not already voted. Thank you, Anne. The next item of business is item 3, the remuneration report. The remuneration report is contained in the 2021 annual financial report and sets out the performance and remuneration of the company's key management personnel, being the Board, the Group Chief Executive Officer, and members of the Executive Leadership Team during the financial year ended 30 September 2021. I make several remarks regarding remuneration during my address. Virginia, do we have any questions on the remuneration report?
Chair, we have no questions on this item of business.
Well, as there are no questions, I'll now formally put the motion that the remuneration report for the year ended 30 September 2021 be adopted. Direct and proxy votes received in advance of the meeting for this item are now displayed on the screen. Please record your vote now if you have not already voted. The next items of business are items 4A and 4B, which relate to deferred equity to be provided to the Group Chief Executive Officer, Ross McEwan, as part of his remuneration arrangements. Item 4A seeks approval for the grant of deferred rights to the Group Chief Executive Officer under the company's annual variable reward plan. Item 4B seeks approval for the grant of performance rights to the Group Chief Executive Officer under the company's long-term variable reward plan.
Both are described in detail in the explanatory notes and in the remuneration report. I'll now invite questions on both items four A and four B. Virginia, do we have any questions on the deferred equity to be provided to the Group Chief Executive Officer as part of his remuneration arrangements?
Chair, we have a question from Mr. Steven David Main. When disclosing the outcome of all resolutions, including this LTI grant, will you publicly disclose how many shareholders voted for and against each item, similar to what happens with a scheme of arrangement? This will provide a better gauge of retail shareholder sentiment on all resolutions, and was a disclosure initiative recently adopted by Metcash, Dexus, and Altium after their AGMs. If the for and against detail is too much, can you at least advise now approximately how many of your 620,000 shareholders voted either directly or by proxy before the meeting commenced?
That is a difficult question to answer because we're not disclosing the number of shareholders. As you appreciate, these votes are based on the number of shares voted. It would certainly add significant increased complexity to try to calculate the number of shareholders. I say that because, for example, often there'll be one shareholder with multiple holdings, so we wouldn't even know whether or not we had the right number. I don't think that that's something that we would be really likely to do. It would certainly be a more complex process and would delay things, and, as I said, I'm not even sure that any answer we could give would be reliably accurate. That's where we are.
We've got the votes in, and the votes are based on the numbers of shares. Thanks for the question, but I'm afraid I'm not able to help you there. Virginia, do we have another question?
Chair, we have a further question from Mr. Steven David Main. "Congratulations to NAB for publishing a full video archive of every NAB AGM since 2013. However, you have never produced an AGM transcript. In order to provide a fuller record of today's debate, including this important discussion on the LTI grant, could you please follow the lead of Afterpay, AGL Energy, ASX, CIMIC, Domino's, Freedom Foods, Lendlease, Mineral Resources, Mirvac, and Nine Entertainment by producing your first AGM transcript in 2021? It is not easy scrolling through videos to find out what was said, and politicians are not asked to do, instead getting a Hansard transcript of all parliamentary debate. Can't we do the same?
Let me just make two points. One is that we don't do a transcript of the AGM, but there are organizations that can make transcripts. Indeed, I think for the cost of AUD 100 or AUD 200, you could probably get one done yourself. If we were to provide the one that we get from the service that we use, my experience with them is that they are error-prone in that they're put together by people who maybe can't hear as clearly or don't understand some of the terminology used, and therefore to make it an accurate transcript requires reworking. I think you refer to the Hansard process, which from my recollection gives members the opportunity to go back and re-edit their comments to make sure they're accurately reflected. It's not our intention to add to that work.
We do make the webcasts available online, and people are welcome to have a service go in and make their own transcripts of them if they wish. It's not our intention to do so. Thank you.
Chair, we have no further questions on these items of business.
Fine. Well, if there are no further questions, I'll now formally put the motion for Resolution 4A, that the grant of deferred rights to the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ross McEwan, under the company's annual variable reward plan, as described in the explanatory notes, be approved. Direct and proxy votes received in advance of the meeting for this item are now displayed on the screen. Please record your vote now if you've not already voted. I'll now formally put the motion for Resolution 4B, that the grant of performance rights to the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ross McEwan, under the company's long-term variable reward plan, as described in the explanatory notes, be approved. Direct and proxy votes received in advance of the meeting for this item are now displayed on the screen. Please record your vote now if you've not already voted.
The next item of business are items 5A and 5B, which are resolutions requisitioned by a group of shareholders promoted by Market Forces. These resolutions relate to an amendment to the company's constitution and climate change transition planning disclosures. I'll explain the resolutions and the board's position before inviting questions from shareholders on these items and on NAB's climate change policies and disclosures. Jack Bertolus, a representative from Market Forces, will also have an opportunity to speak before I invite questions more broadly. Item 5A is a special resolution. As noted earlier, a special resolution requires approval by at least 75% of eligible votes cast on the resolution. Resolution 5A is not endorsed by the board.
While the board respects the rights of shareholders to requisition a resolution to amend NAB's constitution, the board believes that the proposed resolution is not in the best interest of the company and shareholders as a whole and recommends that shareholders vote against it for the reasons outlined in the notice of meeting. Under the constitution, the power to manage the business of NAB is vested in the directors, who are required to make decisions and manage risks in the best interests of the company and shareholders as a whole. In order to discharge that duty, the board must consider a range of issues having regard to the nature and complexity of NAB's business and its operations in a global environment.
The proposed amendment would provide a platform for groups of shareholders to promote any number of matters that may not be in the best interests of the company and shareholders as a whole. The board considers it would be inappropriate for any one issue promoted by shareholders to be given increased prominence over other equally relevant issues. NAB encourages transparency and appropriate shareholder discussion and provides shareholders with a number of avenues to raise issues or concerns. NAB has a comprehensive investor relations engagement program, which aims to facilitate regular and extensive engagement between the board and senior management and investors. Environmental, social, and governance considerations, including climate and biodiversity risk, regularly form a significant part of this engagement. NAB's progress on such matters is reported through its annual public reports.
These include the annual financial report, which contains disclosures aligned to the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, the annual review, which includes a comprehensive update on sustainability performance, investor presentations, and the sustainability data packs. In addition, at each AGM, the chair encourages shareholders to ask questions and make comments about NAB's performance on any issue that's relevant to shareholders as a whole. Shareholders are invited to submit questions before the AGM, which helps us understand shareholder issues and concerns, and to address key areas of shareholder feedback at the meeting. Item five B, which relates to transition planning disclosures, is conditional upon item A being supported by shareholders. The board does not endorse item 5 B either, as we do not consider the resolution to be in the best interests of the company and shareholders as a whole.
Our ongoing goals and progress delivering against our climate strategy, including our updated coal, oil, and gas policies and our risk settings, reflect what we consider to be an orderly and considered approach to responding to climate change while acknowledging the important role we play as a bank at providing finance to businesses as they transition to a lower carbon environment. The board supports the continuation of the current orderly and considered approach that NAB has adopted with respect to climate action. Accordingly, the board recommends that shareholders vote against the proposed resolution for item 5B. I would like to address a number of inaccuracies in the Market Forces explanatory statement before asking shareholders and proxy holders to vote. Firstly, Market Forces claims there is a gap between NAB's action and the requirements under the IEA's net zero emissions 2050 scenario.
This scenario outlines a path for the global energy sector to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050. NAB is using the IEA's net zero emissions 2050 scenario as the reference point to guide its decarbonization pathway for its energy sector exposures. This has been made clear in NAB's 2021 review. Secondly, Market Forces asserts that NAB is being left behind when compared to other financial institutions domestically and abroad. In fact, NAB is the only major Australian bank to have capped oil and gas extraction exposures. We're the only major Australian bank to put clear restrictions on direct financing of greenfield oil and gas extraction. We are the only major Australian bank to have set a goal to reduce our oil and gas exposures from 2026 through till 2050 aligned to that IEA scenario.
This provides for a measured reorientation of our clients' activities, ensuring that NAB can continue to support clients committed to transitioning while also making sure that we continue to support national energy security, Australian jobs, and communities. NAB has also updated its target to reduce thermal coal mining exposure by 50% by 2026 and to effectively zero by 2030, apart from some performance guarantees to ensure the rehabilitation of existing thermal coal mining assets. This is consistent with the actions taken by our global peers with respect to thermal coal mining finance. In item 5 B, Market Forces requests that NAB disclose in subsequent annual reporting information demonstrating how we will manage our fossil fuel exposure in accordance with the scenario in which global emissions reach net zero by 2050, including targets to reduce fossil fuel exposure consistent with net zero by 2050.
Work is already well progressed at NAB in this regard. As outlined in my opening remarks, in the next 12 months, NAB will disclose how we will align our lending to eight key sectors against the 1.5 degree scenarios, including for power generation, residential property, manufacturing, transport, and resources, among others. This is consistent with the requirements as a signatory to the Collective Commitment to Climate Action, of which NAB was the first Australian bank to become a member, as well as the associated Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which NAB has now recently joined. NAB recognizes that achieving net zero emissions is a whole-of-economy challenge. NAB's climate strategy therefore seeks to support and work with all customers across all sectors to decarbonize and build resilience to climate change.
Before asking shareholders and proxy holders to vote on these items, I'll invite a representative of Market Forces to speak to their resolution by way of the audio line. Virginia.
Please go ahead, shareholder.
Hi, I'm Jack Bertolus from Market Forces. We worked with shareholders to coordinate items 5A and 5B. I'll speak briefly today in favor of the resolution, specifically calling on NAB to commit to no longer finance new fossil fuel projects and to disclose targets to reduce fossil fuel exposure consistent with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. NAB supports the net zero by 2050 goal. Climate science and energy modeling make it abundantly clear that achieving this goal leaves no room for new fossil fuel projects and requires rapid declines in the production and use of coal, oil, and gas. Yet NAB continues to provide funding for new fossil fuel projects and the companies pursuing them.
Notably, its recently updated oil and gas policy contains an array of loopholes and allowances, permitting the bank to continue funding new oil and gas projects through a mix of corporate and project finance. Meanwhile, the bank's cap on oil and gas exposure covers only the upstream sector, allowing continued unrestricted funding for midstream and downstream oil and gas infrastructure. This resolution therefore presents a necessary opportunity to bring NAB's fossil fuel lending into line with its stated support for global climate goals. Failure to bridge this gap would leave NAB exposed to needless financial climate change transition risks as well as reputation and legal risks as the world moves to rapidly decarbonize. Shareholders do not want to see this company exposed to stranded fossil fuel assets, being publicly called out for funding climate-wrecking companies, or being sued over inconsistencies between its statements and actions.
We therefore ask shareholders to support this resolution with the long-term interests and sustainability of the company in mind, and thank those that have already cast votes in favor of the resolution. Thank you.
Thank you, Jack. I just wanna make a couple of comments for the benefit of our shareholders. NAB has taken a whole-of-economy approach to the issue of the net zero transition. As we indicated earlier, we'll be coming out with sectoral policies in relation to eight critical sectors next year. We are well progressed on that work. Jack, in particular relating to your comments about midstream and downstream, by next year, I think you'll see that we have covered those issues because we'll be covering transport, energy production, and so on. We're going a lot further than that. To put it into context for our shareholders, we have total credit exposures in the bank of around AUD 1 trillion. That is AUD 1,000 billion of total credit exposures.
Our total exposures to the whole of the resources sector, including energy generation, represents approximately 1% of that amount. Within that, only a third of 1% relates to coal and energy, either coal extraction or coal used for energy production. The much more important issue that shareholders should be concerned about is the other 99% of our lending portfolio and the carbon intensity of that, and the transitions that are required in areas like the built infrastructure, for example, commercial real estate, where we have a large footing, agriculture, which of course is an important part of it.
It is much more important to us at NAB that we look at the climate transition as a whole-of-economy transition and not something specifically relating to a very small part of our business, even though it is obviously of significance in terms of its climate impact. I just wanted shareholders to have an understanding that we're taking a much broader approach to the whole issue of the energy transition than than just some sort of tokenism about oil and gas. Virginia, do we have any questions on the proposed amendment to the company's constitution, climate change transition planning disclosures, or climate change matters more generally?
Chair, we have a question from Ms. Diana Beer. "At last year's AGM, I noted that Commonwealth Bank has disclosed an assessment finding that the Australian grains, livestock, and dairy agriculture sectors face declines in productivity and profitability of 40%-50% out to 2060 as a result of climate change impacts unless mitigating steps are taken. I asked what the anticipated change is to the default rate in our agribusiness loan book under scenarios of unmitigated climate-related losses. In response, I was told we don't have a number, but that this is an issue we have spent a lot of time on. Given we market ourselves as Australia's largest agribusiness lenders and that we've had another year to spend on it, I expect we now know the answer. Where am I able to find it?
The whole point of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures is about investors like us knowing how secure our capital is. We need to know if our money is safe with this bank.
Thank you. Thank you very much for that question. I think in respect of the comments I've just made, you'll appreciate that I think this question is of considerable importance. The agricultural sector is a large source of emissions. It's also a large source of potential abatement of emissions. It's a significant part of our business. It's exactly for sectors like this that we're embarked on the serious work of looking at climate impacts.
I'm sorry we haven't been able to come up with an answer to the question as yet, but there is considerable work underway through the international bodies that I've been referring to previously, such as the Collective Commitment to Climate Action and the Net Zero Banking Alliance, to agree on methodologies so that we adopt an industry standard approach to how these things are measured, and that's why it's taking a little bit longer. We are concerned that this is an important area. We're also required by our regulator, the APRA, to do climate vulnerability assessments. There will be a regulatory overlay as well. Ms.
Beer, I can assure you that this is something that actually we do take very seriously, and I appreciate your drawing attention to it because clearly it's of much more significance to the bank than as I've mentioned earlier, the relatively small exposures we have to industries like coal, oil, and gas. We are looking at that very seriously and I can assure you that we'll be cooperating, particularly through the UNEP FI task force on financial disclosures pilots that are underway now. Virginia, do we have any further questions?
Chair, we have an audio question from Karra Kinchela. Please go ahead with your question, shareholder.
Hi, I'm Kara. I'm from Narrabri, northwest New South Wales. I'm also a Gomeroi traditional owner and custodian. My question is
When will you stop financing coal and gas companies like Whitehaven Coal and finance renewables as a major energy source in Northwest New South Wales? Thank you.
Thank you. Well, I think I've indicated that we'll be exiting our thermal coal exposures by 2030, and we are putting considerable effort into financing renewables wherever we can. I don't intend to get to business of naming every individual client. Indeed, I have no intention of doing so. The reason that we put the caps in place, net zero thermal coal by 2030, $2.4 billion of oil and gas exposures out to 2026 and then down to zero, consistent with zero by 2050, is so that shareholders and other concerned individuals can be assured without having to pore over individual names that the aggregate of our exposures are in decline. It's not particularly productive to name customers in that regard. It is something we take seriously.
Karra, I thank you very much for your question and your concerns. We absolutely agree with your proposition that we should be financing more renewable energy, and we'll be looking for every opportunity to do so.
Chair, we have an audio question from Chief Woos. Please go ahead with your question, shareholder.
This is Chief Woos. As shareholders of the National Australia Bank, you should know that your company is not upholding its own commitments to respect indigenous and human rights. Your bank purports that your financing follows the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Yet you loan CAD 117.5 million to Coastal GasLink, a pipeline that has never received free, prior or informed consent from the title owners of the land that the pipeline wants to cross. The Supreme Court of Canada recognized in 1997 Delgamuukw landmark case that the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs, that's myself and six others, have never ceased to hold rights over the Wet'suwet'en land. Coastal GasLink is illegally constructing on our land, and now my people are being forcefully, violently evicted by police forces from our own territory.
How do you reconcile your company's supposed commitments to UNDRIP while financing a project that is illegal and committing human rights violations and perpetuating the oppressions of indigenous people for the purpose of colonial extractivism?
Thank you, Chief Woos, for the question. For the shareholders who aren't familiar with it, this relates to a gas pipeline in Canada. All I can say is that we do look into environmental and social risk on projects. There's a set of principles known as the Equator Principles that set out how that is done. I can also assure shareholders looking forward that we have no intention of doing any further greenfields gas or oil, as I've said, extraction outside of Australia. This is an historical issue only. Virginia, do we have another question?
Chair, we have an audio question from Josie Alec. Please go ahead with your question, shareholder.
Yes, good morning. My name is Josie Alec, and I'm a traditional owner of the Mardudhunera clan of Murujuga. The Murujuga rock art here in WA is slowly being destroyed by acid rain produced by a local industry. What is happening to the rock art has been referred to as Juukan Gorge in slow motion. Woodside's proposed expansion of its Pluto facility would only exacerbate this process and lead to the loss of this ancient and important part of my heritage. NAB is arranging the finance for Global Infrastructure Partners to partner with Woodside and fund this expansion. Is the NAB board comfortable with this involvement in facilitating the destruction of 40,000-year-old cultural heritage? Will you come to Murujuga so that I can show you what's at stake, and I can show you my dreaming that is going to be ruined and wrecked?
Thank you for the question, Josie. I'd just refer to the comment I made earlier, which is we fully intend to scale down our lending in the oil and gas sector. We've formed a view that we will do no further aggregate lending, i.e. we'll cap our exposures at the $2.4 billion that we currently have, and after 2026, we'll be reducing it. I'm not gonna comment as to which individual customers or projects sit under the $2.4 billion cap. It would be unproductive, and it changes frequently. That is a limit, and it is a clear intention by this bank to help the process of the decarbonization of the Australian economy towards a net zero by 2050. We take that seriously, and we'll continue that work.
Thank you for raising the important sensitivities in northwestern Australia. Virginia, do we have another question?
Chair, we have a question from Abigail Shepherd. Please go ahead with your question, shareholder.
Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Thank you.
Good. Sorry, there have been problems. I was disconnected earlier.
Okay.
My question is specifically about legal risk issues in connection with the sort of climate issues that have already been put to you, this morning.
Yes.
It's one question, but it's in two parts, so if you just bear with me.
The first question is whether or not you're aware of the advice of Noel Hutley SC that's been published by the Centre for Policy Development about corporate legal obligations in connection with climate issues. If you are, the second part of the question is that on the basis that if you are, Mr. Hutley's most recent advice, and he's issued several pieces of advice, clearly identifies how important it is for companies to have a reasonable basis for their statements about climate goals and targets and about the risk of the legal consequences of greenwashing. That is making inaccurate commitments or without a reasonable basis.
Now, clearly, you've been referred a number of times today to your statements that NAB is helping the transition to a low carbon economy and its plan is to support its customers to achieve net zero emissions, and to achieve net zero emissions portfolio by 2050. You've also referred to the International Energy Agency and others have referred to its recommendations this year that there is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply. You've also been referred to the fact that NAB has continued to support fossil fuel projects, including some new ones. That in the light of these matters and the matters raised by Mr. Hutley's advice, are you concerned about NAB having engaged in greenwashing?
Far from it. I think the approach taken by NAB, which is to work with the internationally recognized bodies on a whole of bank approach to the net zero transition, is exactly to avoid greenwashing. As I said, we don't want to embark on any form of tokenism. We want to look at what the real implications are for the Australian economy of moving to a net zero emissions world by 2050. A lot of focus has been put on the nature of the disclosures and in the nature of commitments that we have made, for the very reason that you've articulated, which is that we should not be making any commitment or making any disclosure that we cannot support.
One of the reasons that we're taking our time, and I think a couple of questioners earlier on were asking why we couldn't provide some more information earlier on one or two sectors. The reason is that we are ensuring that we have a proper basis for any disclosures that we make or any commitment that we make. It's very much driven by the risk of misleading our investors and therefore the legal risk that that would open us up to. Yes, we take those issues very seriously, and it's one of the reasons why we're taking the ordered approach of focusing on the frameworks that come out of the bodies that we've been joining, such as the Collective Commitment to Climate Action and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
Working with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures to ensure that we properly manage these issues. Thank you for raising the point because it is an important point to be made. You may rest assured that the reason that we're focused on the whole of economy or whole of business approach is very much to avoid any suggestion of greenwashing. Virginia, do we have another question?
Chair, we have an audio question from Sally Hunter on behalf of Caroline Le Couteur. Please go ahead with your question, Sally.
Hi there. I am Sally Hunter. I'm calling in from my farm in northwest New South Wales near Narrabri on Gomeroi country. I grew up learning about money from signing checks with the National Bank. We were a traditional farming family who would visit our local National Bank branch frequently and were family friends with the bank manager. For this reason, NAB has a special place in my consciousness around family values, agricultural values, honesty and integrity. Myself and four of my neighbors met with the NAB sustainability team earlier this year, and we really did appreciate them hearing our accounts of the negative impacts created by Whitehaven Coal, and this was a much better response than we had from other banks. I thank you for that.
Whitehaven Coal, along with its associated entities, has so far had 46 breaches, fines, official cautions and penalty notices in the last 9 years. 46 breaches is not a normal way of doing business. This is a systemic, calculated and planned method of operating. It's a conscious decision to choose to break the laws, do the illegal activity and accept the fine as part of the cost of doing business. This is not how the rest of us run businesses. One tiny slice of an example of the way that this company treated my community. I take you back to 2019 in the height of the worst drought in living memory. My family lost our income. We sold down our herd and asset base, and we all tried to hunker down against the unrelenting dust storms, the heat and the dried out rivers and dams.
We stopped doing business as dictated by the conditions. At the very time, Whitehaven was illegally stealing surface water out of the catchment that they have since been found guilty of. They were also buying up more of my neighbors' lands that were never supposed to be bought out for the projects. They just needed the water licenses. So they built illegal pipelines that they were also later fined for just to keep operating, despite the fact that their consent conditions state that if they do not have enough water, operations need to change to suit the availability of water, just as we did as neighbors. Whitehaven did not. They broke multiple laws. By providing finance to an environmentally and socially reprehensible company like Whitehaven, the NAB board, staff and shareholders are part of the problem. The standard that you walk past is the standard that you accept.
I once again invite NAB members to the northwest to be able to see firsthand these issues because there are more coal mines expanding and new coal projects proposed for this region, a lot more.
My question to the board and shareholders of NAB is: When will you halt financing environmentally and socially reprehensible companies such as Whitehaven Coal and its associated entities that are continuing to expand and seek new approvals in this region? Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Sally. Actually, I quite like the idea of heading out to rural New South Wales. I was limited to 5K radius from home for so long, it sounds quite attractive to get out. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do so, but it's pleasing that our sustainability team were able to meet with you. I hope you appreciate that it's impossible for me to speak about another company at our AGM. Can I just draw your attention to the process that we're underway at the moment, which is, we're reviewing all of our largest emitting customers, or top 100 of the largest emitting companies, to understand what they are doing to improve the sustainability of their businesses.
It is our expectation that if we're not able to get satisfied that companies have credible transition plans, that we would progressively, I guess, bank with other people or have them bank with other people. But I don't want to make any specific comment about any specific customer in that regard. Thank you for the question. Virginia, do we have another question?
Chair, we have a question from Glenn Walker. NAB has the worst coal power generation policy of all Australia's banks, with a very weak target of 45% emission reduction by 2030 for power generation customers. This is different to the thermal coal mining policy and is completely at odds with the UN, IEA, and IPCC call for Australia to stop burning coal by 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Given this, will the board commit to urgently updating climate policies to ensure no funding is provided to companies burning coal beyond 2030? I'd like a specific time commitment, please.
Well, electricity generation is one of the 8 sectors that we'll be committing our plans for, or creating our plans for over the next 12 months. By this time next year, we should be able to satisfy you by having a clear, coherent, and well-thought-through position in respect of electricity generation. In line with one of our earlier questioners, we'll be making sure that it is fully auditable, i.e., that any commitments we make can be supported. Thank you for raising it. I guess it just draws attention to the work we're doing across all sectors. It's not just about extraction of coal or extraction of oil and gas.
It's the much more important downstream and midstream uses of all of the climate-emitting products or emissions-emitting products that we need to consider. I think it's good that our shareholders are able to see that there's a broad range of issues that we need to take into account outside of just the extractive industries. Thank you for that. Virginia, do we have another question?
Chair, we have a question from Mr. Steven David Main. I've never understood why Australian boards continue to resist opinion-based resolutions when these are standard in the U.S. What is so wrong about a group of shareholders putting up a resolution that expresses an opinion? Instead, we effectively have a board monopoly over what resolutions are put up. Shareholder resolutions are a great way to gauge shareholder sentiment. Climate campaigners are now getting around this restriction with the contingent resolutions model. Why not just embrace this constitutional amendment? You won't get deluged with resolutions because it will still have the significant obstacle of requiring support from 100 shareholders or 5% of the ordinary shares. Whereas in the U.S., any single shareholder who has held U.S. $2,000 worth of shares for more than 12 months can put an opinion-based shareholder resolution.
Thanks, Steven. I think I've articulated, but I'll give my reasoning and perhaps in plainer language. The board is charged with governing this company, and it is not useful to move to an environment where it looks like we're being a referendum-based organization. We take soundings from our shareholders on a whole range of issues. I think our shareholders have spoken very conclusively. I think today, the Resolution 5A has been opposed by something like 95% of the direct and proxy votes already lodged. I think we've got overwhelming support for the board's position, and I don't see any reason why we would change that. Frankly, it's not that hard to get 100 shareholders to put up a resolution, as we've seen over the last few years at NAB.
I simply don't accept the proposition, Steven, and 95% of our shareholders by value support that. Virginia, do you have another question?
Chair, we have an audio question from Jack Bertolus.
Thank you.
Please go ahead with your question, shareholder.
Hi again. It's Jack from Market Forces. I'm just circling back around to ask the question that I posed at item one. That is that, in light of the International Energy Agency finding that reducing emissions to net zero by 2050 leaves no room for new fossil fuel supply projects, and also given,
NAB's updated policy last month, which left the door open to continued funding for these fossil projects and the companies pursuing them. I noted that NAB at the time that it was announcing the policy update was also reportedly arranging funds for the acquisition of Pluto Train 2. That acquisition enables Woodside to press ahead with the Scarborough Energy Project, the largest greenfield gas development in Australia in a decade. Over its lifetime, the emissions from the Scarborough Pluto project would total 1.6 billion tons of CO2, equivalent to 15 coal-fired power stations running for 30 years.
In light of the overwhelming evidence that there's no room for new fossil fuel projects if we're to achieve the Paris Agreement and net zero by 2050, what evidence can NAB produce that enabling an additional 1.6 billion tons of CO2 is in any way compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees?
The reading, our reading of the IEA report envisages that electricity production will be increasingly reliant on gas in the near term in order to retire coal-fired power stations. But when we reviewed that increasing use of gas, we formed the view that we would not be increasing our gas exposures, and hence the capping of our exposure at AUD 2.4 billion for the period between now and out to 2026. The important thing here was that we have capped that exposure even though the IEA envisages gas usage increasing in the near term, and that's how we came to our landing. As I've already indicated, the individual customers' exposures that make up the AUD 2.4 billion is not something I'll be engaging in dialogue around at the annual general meeting.
That's about all I can offer on that one, Jack. Thank you for your question, and thank you for your contribution earlier on the introducing the resolution. Virginia, do we have another question?
Chair, we have an audio question from Dr. Mary Ann Heath. Please go ahead with your question, Chair Hoder.
Thank you. I'm a former professor of law, and I'm interested in National Australia Bank's compliance with its own sustainability statement, which says that National Australia Bank is working with its customers to support implementation of low carbon transition plans so that National Australia Bank will achieve a net zero emissions lending portfolio by 2050. Can you explain how National Australia Bank supports the implementation of low carbon transition plans while it continues to support new fossil fuel projects such as that put forward by Whitehaven Coal and referred to in some of the other questions? Thank you.
Thank you. As I indicated earlier, we take a very broad approach to working with our customers on transition plans. I appreciate that many of our questioners today want to talk about coal and oil or coal and gas in particular. Actually we're taking a much more wide-ranging approach to the transition. Our corporate institutional team have been meeting with the companies, the top 100 companies that have significant emissions footprints. We have had education sessions for the board with representatives from the United Nations Environment Programme, those that have worked on the IEA transition documents. We've had dialogue. I had a session with the chairs of a number of large Australian companies across diverse industries.
We're looking at the much more important issue of how the economy as a whole makes that transition. We do take it very seriously. You bring up the issue of our legal compliance with our commitments. We take that very seriously. That's why we are taking the whole of economy approach, and that's why we are using the framework that we get from the UNEP FI's Collective Commitment to Climate Action and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, along with working on the various working parties set up under the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. Shareholders can rest assured that we are taking a very serious and measured approach to our climate transition planning. Virginia, do we have any more questions?
Chair, we have an audio question from Sleydo' Molly Wickham. Please go ahead with your question.
Hi, this is Sleydo'. I'm the spokesperson for the Unist'ot'en Checkpoint on the Wet'suwet'en Territory. I was violently arrested at gunpoint on November 19 on my own territory and removed from my territory by the RCMP under a Supreme Court injunction by Coastal GasLink project, who is trespassing on our territory. I was imprisoned for five days, and at Coastal GasLink's request, I was given conditions of my release not to enter my own territory. I'm restricted from accessing my own territory. I was removed by the RCMP from my own territory violently at gunpoint with RCMP attack dogs and sniper rifles trained. Is this the kind of reputation that your bank is willing to proceed with, willing to take this kind of direct action against indigenous people on their own land through the GasLink project?
This project is contributing to the genocide of our people. Are you willing to take accountability for that and to commit to UNDRIP and the commitment?
Thank you for the question. I guess this is the same as the question earlier, the other Canadian client. I'll just reiterate the point that this project was evaluated on grounds of environmental and social risk at the time it was undertaken. I have nothing further that I can add at this point of the meeting. Virginia, do we have another question?
Chair, we have a question from Mr. Glenn Walker. The Chair has referred to the % of the business funding fossil fuel companies, but the fact is that even a modest amount of funding for one of these businesses helps make these polluting operations viable and therefore leverages substantial greenhouse gas emissions. Has the bank fully quantified the greenhouse gas emissions it facilitates through its funding? What is that figure, and how is this calculated?
Thank you. Thank you. That's exactly the point I was trying to make before, which is we are trying to move to a model where we look at our financed emissions, and that is that transition I was talking about, and why we are undertaking the important work of doing the eight industry evaluations over the next year. Because the point you make is exactly the point I'm trying to make, which is that our emissions intensity of our agriculture business, our commercial property, heavy industry, transport, under any measure will be much more significant than the emissions that we have financed through oil, gas and coal. I thank you for drawing attention, Mr. Walker, to that because it's extraordinarily important that this point is made, that our financed emissions is how we should be thinking about this going forward.
Once you see those financed emissions, you'll understand why we think it's important to move the focus away from oil and gas and coal and onto the broader transition for the Australian economy. It's a very important point, and I'm glad you've raised it. Virginia, do we have another question?
Chair, we have an audio question from Karen Large. Please go ahead with your question, shareholder.
Hello, thank you. I'm just putting forward the two questions that I had put forward earlier under item one. They're two questions, but they're both related. The first one is the International Energy Agency stated earlier this year that no new fossil fuel projects should be approved in order to achieve net zero by 2050. In light of this, when will NAB commit to provide no further finance to companies such as Woodside and BHP who are planning to develop the controversial Scarborough gas field off the Western Australian coast? My second question is related to NAB's recently released oil and gas policy, which includes a commitment to only consider financing greenfield gas extraction in Australia, where it plays a role in underpinning national energy security.
Can you confirm that this means NAB won't provide financing for Woodside and BHP's controversial Scarborough gas development, which is predominantly for export? Thank you.
Thank you. No, I think I have actually answered these questions to other questioners. I will just repeat that we have a clear policy on oil and gas, which caps the exposures. We've set out that we're not going to do greenfields gas, although there are potential carve-outs for integrated LNG and for national energy security. I do need to reassure concerned shareholders that even where those carve-outs are applied, they will still sit within the $2.4 billion exposure. Therefore be no net expansion of our financing of emissions in that regard. As I've already indicated to other questioners, I have no intention of discussing individual customers or individual projects because we'll be communicating the financed emissions framework as the basis for our disclosures.
I think that answers it as best as I'm going to be able to. Virginia, next question.
Chair, we have a question from Erabor Proprietary Limited. Congratulations on integrating climate change risk into your credit risk assessments and the actions planned over the next 12 months to which you have referred. These issues have been raised by shareholders over the last decade. What lessons has the board drawn from the fact that it has taken a decade to adopt these policies?
Thank you for that. I in the last 2 and a bit years, when I've been Chair and even before that, we have been working to develop a coherent approach. We signed up to the Collective Commitment to Climate Action in 2019, so it's certainly over 2 years since we've taken these issues seriously. When we made that commitment to the CCCA, we set out that over the ensuing 2-3 years, we would be coming up with sector policies, and that's the timetable that we've been following. Thank you for recognizing the work we've done, but we fully appreciate that there's a lot of work ahead of us, for us and for our customers as we help the Australian economy transition to a low-carbon future. That work is far from done.
The board has been quite deeply engaged. As I said earlier, we've had significant sessions over the course of this year understanding the frameworks, understanding what the IEA report says or what it means, and then working with the frontline bankers who are having the conversations with customers to understand these transition plans. I appreciate your comments on that. Virginia, do we have another question please?
Chair, we have a question from National Nominees Limited. These questions are from Stuart Palmer of Australian Ethical Investment. Does the bank's commitment not to fund greenfield gas apply to all bank finance? Would the bank make a new or refinanced corporate loan to a company which is implementing a strategy of developing greenfield oil and gas extraction projects? What is the scope of the exception for gas projects which help underpin national energy security, given the alternative technologies and investment opportunities available to deliver energy security?
Thank you, Mr. Palmer. The first part of your question, I guess, gets me back to where I've been saying about needing to have the financed emissions intensity or financed emissions framework implemented, which we're looking to do over the coming years. Because ultimately, we need to get out of the measurement approaches that we've used historically around project financing and direct lending to talk about the total financing that we have to companies engaged in various industries. It cuts to the comment I've made about working with the top hundred customers in terms of the emissions work to understand their transition plans.
The answer to your question is that over time you should progressively see us adopting an approach where we will be directing our financing towards those companies that have credible transition plans. That's the first part of it. The second part, the exception for gas projects that underpin national energy security is intended to deal with an extreme situation only. And while I guess I'm agreeing with your point, we believe that there will be alternative technologies to deliver energy security, but they are not sufficiently scalable or robust as at today.
As those technologies improve and as the management of the electricity grid in Australia is improved, we envisage that renewables can and will be able to make up 100% of the energy needs of the country, and therefore we should not be needing to rely on the national energy security carve-out. I'll just reassess or reaffirm here, even with that carve-out, anything we did would still be under the cap that we've indicated. Virginia.
Chair, we have a question from Mrs. Sherie Carlisle Ritchie Lowe. Do I take your last comment to mean that some shareholders' opinions should not be heard or expressed although they financially support the company?
Now I'm going to guess here that the term last comment refers to an earlier comment I made about the 95% of our shareholders who voted against the resolution. I think that. Let me know if I've got that wrong. No, I hope you realize by my patience here today in listening to questions that I'm very happy to listen to our shareholders' opinions on a range of issues. I hope you'll have seen over the last couple of years, I've been happy to hear and I welcome questions on our policy. I'm here to explain it as much as I can, and we're here to take your questions. Know that you should not take any suggestion that voices should not be heard or opinions should not be expressed. Thank you. Virginia.
Chair, we have an audio question from Johanna Chris Gardner. Please go ahead with your question, shareholder.
Thank you.
Hello?
Hello.
My question, which I asked in the first section.
Yes
... I'm just asking it again.
Can you just remind me?
My question is about our exposure to energy and resources. Page 36 of our annual review shows our lending to coal mining and oil and gas extraction. Having read through the annual and supplementary reports of our major competitors, ANZ, CBA and Westpac, it's apparent that our disclosures are quite limited by comparison. Compared to us, CBA and Westpac both disclose their exposure to the energy value chain. For instance, these banks not only disclose exposure to coal mining, but also to coal ports and rail. All three of the other banks also disclose exposure to not only oil and gas extraction, but transportation, refining and retail, including LNG terminals, for example. My question is, when will NAB publish its exposure to the energy value chain as our major competitors have done?
Thank you. Yes. Now I remember.
Can you give me a date?
Thank you. Yes, thank you. I do remember the question now. I think I've indicated in response to a couple of other questioners that we are doing the 8 sector emissions intensity exposure plans, or in fact our energy intensity plans, for those sectors, over the next 12 months. The date that we should have that type of information that you're requesting is for this time next year. We've just been working through with our global peers to make sure that we've got the methodology right to do that on a globally consistent basis. We absolutely intend to do so. Thank you for the question, Johanna. Virginia.
Chair, we have no further questions.
Thank you.
On this item of business.
Well, if there are no further questions, I'm now formally gonna put the motion 5A, that NAB's constitution be amended to insert into the constitution in Clause 8, General Meetings, the following new subclause 8.3A advisory resolutions. That the company in general meeting may, by ordinary resolution, express an opinion or request information about the way in which a power of the company, partially or exclusively vested in directors, has been or should be exercised. Such a resolution rather, must relate to a material risk identified by the directors of the company and cannot advocate action that would violate any law or relate to any personal claim or grievance. Such resolution is advisory only and does not bind the directors of the company. Direct and proxy votes received in advance of the meeting for this item are now displayed on the screen.
Please record your vote now if you've not already voted. Based on the results of direct voting in advance of the meeting and the proxy votes, we are able to determine that this resolution has failed. As Item 5A rather, was not successful, Item 5B will not be put to the meeting. As I said earlier, in the spirit of transparency, we will now share the direct and proxy votes received in advance of the meeting in relation to this conditional item. They are now displayed on the screen. That now covers all of the formal business before the annual general meeting. I'll now open the meeting to any general questions which have yet to be addressed. Virginia, do we have anything further?
Chair, we have a question from Denmark Dream Proprietary Limited from Rita. "Chairman, could you confirm the banking code of practice continues to form part of NAB's relevant lending contracts, which provides consumers safeguards and protections that are not set out in the law?
I believe that the Banking Code of Practice has specific coverage, and I'm trying to remember its business customers up to a couple of million.
It's for personal customers.
Personal customers and small business enterprises
We do take-
Yes.
We voluntarily take
Yep
Small business customers.
Customers, and that was a voluntary compliance issue. I recall that. That does, therefore, by extension form part of our lending contracts, and the code then becomes the basis on which a customer can go to the code compliance committee, if there's any concern that the code has been breached. By extension, customers that are covered by the code can rely on the code, as an extension of our credit contracts. Yes, is the answer to that question.
Virginia, another question?
Chair, we have a question from Mr. Dennis Sylvan Guillo. "Why are there no subtitles or a sign language interpreter?
Thank you. I do not know the answer to that question, and I'll look at that as an opportunity to improve the function of our annual general meeting for future meetings. A very good point, and let me take that on notice and deal with it. If there are no further questions, then on behalf of the board, the executives and staff of the company, I'd like to thank you for joining us today. I'd also like to thank our customers and shareholders for their continued support of National Australia Bank. I now formally declare this annual general meeting closed, and confirm that voting will remain open for a further 10 minutes to allow ample time for shareholders and proxy holders to submit any final votes.
Voting results will be released to the ASX and will also be available on the AGM page of our website. Thank you.