National Australia Bank expects to reduce its internal workforce by up to 2,500 roles or ~6% in FY27, including up to 1,500 roles before the end of 2026. The bank lodged the plan with the stock exchange on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, and the cuts are aimed at reducing the size of corporate functions, with deeper changes to senior management positions and no material impact to customer-facing banking roles. Around 180 roles will also be offshored to NAB offices in Vietnam and India, according to the Finance Sector Union.
For Metaintro readers who work at NAB or another Australian bank, this guide sets out what NAB has actually committed to, what Australian law guarantees anyone made redundant, how the union is responding, and which NAB roles are still being advertised.
What Exactly Did NAB Announce on October 20?
The announcement covers actions to simplify its operating model and better align its workforce to prioritise growth and technology initiatives for customers. NAB framed the changes as part of a broader review to identify the nature of the workforce required to support NAB’s strategic ambition in an evolving operating environment.
The headline numbers are a ceiling, not a final count. The bank expects to cut up to 2,500 roles or ~6% in FY27, and the first wave covers up to 1,500 roles before the end of 2026. NAB will also materially reduce its use of consultants and external contractors, so consultants and contractors are also affected.
The actions are meant to leave NAB better placed to navigate risks and opportunities arising from more challenging economic conditions, increasing customer expectations, competitive intensity and rapid technological change. They also create capacity for ongoing investment and support three priorities, which are to grow business banking, drive deposit growth and strengthen proprietary home lending.
Before the announcement, NAB employed more than 41,000 people worldwide. The stated aim is to improve productivity, risk outcomes and execution to be a simpler and more efficient bank, while the bank’s ambition and strategy remain unchanged.
Is the Deadline Mid-2027 or the 2027 Financial Year?
The bank’s own wording is up to 2,500 roles or ~6% in FY27. NAB’s financial year does not follow the calendar, as its 2025 results cover the year ended 30 September 2025.
The phrase by mid-2027 appears in news coverage, and the FSU member update uses by mid-2027 as well. The primary wording is in the NAB statement to the ASX, which ties the full program to FY27 and the first up to 1,500 roles to the end of 2026. The restructuring cost sits in the same period, at about $300 million pre-tax in the 2027 financial year.
The union warns that some 1500 families face a bleak festive season, while the remaining 1000 will have to wait in limbo until some time in the New Year to learn whether their jobs survive.
Which Teams and Roles Are Most Exposed?
The cuts centre on reducing the size of corporate functions and on deeper changes to senior management positions which will broaden leadership responsibilities across the bank.
The areas in scope include strategy, transformation and project management, as well as back office, compliance, risk and business services functions, as listed by Human Resources Director.
Workers have been given little detail about which roles will be affected. At a meeting with the union that morning, management was unable to answer basic questions put by the union, including what roles will be impacted and when workers will learn if they will lose their jobs, the Finance Sector Union said. The union also says staff learned about these cuts via an email sent at the same time as the stock exchange was told.
The offshoring figure of around 180 roles to NAB offices in Vietnam and India comes from the union, and the NAB announcement does not mention offshoring at all.
There will be no material impact to customer-facing banking roles, NAB Group CEO Andrew Irvine said, according to the NAB announcement to the ASX.
What Is NAB Offering Workers Who Lose Their Roles?
NAB has committed to commence consultation with colleagues and the Finance Sector Union. Consistent with established organisational change processes, departing staff will get support in four forms.
- Consultation and engagement opportunities
- Redeployment and reskilling opportunities
- Career transition support
- Redundancy entitlements in accordance with applicable industrial instruments and employment obligations
The restructuring charge is much larger than in the last two years. NAB expects a restructuring charge of approximately $300m pre-tax in FY27, covering redundancy, redeployment and organisational redesign costs. That compares with a charge of approximately $80m pre-tax which has been incurred in each of FY25 and FY26.
Individual redundancy package terms are not set out in the NAB announcement. Further details on the cost outlook for FY27 will be provided with the release of FY26 results on 5 November 2026. Irvine pledged that we will treat every person with dignity and respect, and FSU National Assistant Secretary Nicole McPherson responded that so far NAB has shown them none.
What Redundancy Pay Does Australian Law Guarantee?
The legal floor comes from the National Employment Standards. An employee may be entitled to redundancy pay if they have at least one year of continuous service with their employer, are covered by the national system, and work for an employer with at least 15 people.
The minimum payments under the standards depend on length of service, as set out by the Fair Work Ombudsman’s redundancy pay page.
- Service of at least 1 year but less than 2 years earns 4 weeks of redundancy pay.
- Service of at least 2 years but less than 3 years earns 6 weeks of redundancy pay.
- Service of at least 3 years but less than 4 years earns 7 weeks of redundancy pay.
- Service of at least 4 years but less than 5 years earns 8 weeks of redundancy pay.
- Service of at least 5 years but less than 6 years earns 10 weeks of redundancy pay.
- Service of at least 6 years but less than 7 years earns 11 weeks of redundancy pay.
- Service of at least 7 years but less than 8 years earns 13 weeks of redundancy pay.
- Service of at least 8 years but less than 9 years earns 14 weeks of redundancy pay.
- Service of at least 9 years but less than 10 years earns 16 weeks of redundancy pay.
- Service of at least 10 years earns 12 weeks of redundancy pay, and the Fair Work redundancy pay table refers readers to a separate Library article on redundancy pay after 10 years of service.
These are minimums. If an employee is covered by an enterprise agreement, the agreement may include entitlements and rules about redundancy, and NAB’s own commitment is to pay redundancy entitlements in accordance with applicable industrial instruments. The union points members to our NAB Enterprise Agreement as the document that sets their rights.
Redundancy pay is paid at the employee's base pay rate for their ordinary hours of work, and it excludes incentive-based payments and bonuses, loadings, monetary allowances, overtime or penalty rates and any other separately identifiable amounts. On top of it, any outstanding entitlements also need to be paid out, including any unused annual leave and long service leave. Notice is separate, and an employer must still give an employee notice of termination or pay in lieu.
What Has to Happen Before a Redundancy Is Genuine?
A redundancy must be genuine, and that has a legal meaning. It is not genuine if the employer still needs the employee’s job to be done by someone, hasn’t followed any consultation requirements in the relevant award or agreement, or could have reasonably given the employee another job within the employer’s business or an associated entity.
If a redundancy is not genuine, the employee may be able to apply for an unfair dismissal remedy.
Consultation has set steps. Under the consultation term in awards and agreements, after a decision on major change the employer must as soon as possible notify affected employees and any representatives about the proposed changes, provide all relevant information in writing, discuss with employees and their representatives the introduction of the changes, their likely effects, and strategies to reduce the negative effects on the employees, and consider any ideas or suggestions raised by the employees or their representatives.
Large rounds carry extra duties. A business considering making 15 or more employees redundant must notify Services Australia in writing first, setting out the number and categories of the employees likely to be affected. An employer must notify or consult with a union if at least 1 employee is a union member.
The union reminded NAB members of their rights under the enterprise agreement during an earlier round in August. Under the agreement, management is required to consult with you about the introduction of these proposed changes and implement measures to avert or mitigate the adverse effects of the changes. That August round was much smaller, as the changes were expected to result in 29 net job losses across Personal Everyday Banking and 14 net job losses across Wealth Advice Remediation.
How Has the Union Responded, and Is AI Part of the Story?
The response was immediate. FSU national assistant secretary Nicole McPherson called the move a wrecking ball to 6% of one of Australia's largest workforces this close to Christmas. The union has demanded an urgent meeting with CEO Andrew Irvine, and the union says that at a meeting that morning, which Irvine did not attend, management refused to confirm whether the cuts were due to AI.
Members have a set of briefings to choose from. The FSU is running sessions on Wednesday 21 October and Thursday 22 October, each at 8am (AEDT), 11am, 1pm and 7pm, to discuss the cuts, your rights and how we can collectively respond.
The terms artificial intelligence and AI do not appear in the NAB release, which instead points to rapid technological change. In an August 2026 speech to customers in Melbourne, Irvine said that AI will not be a silver bullet. It's an amplifier.
Others want a clearer answer. Swinburne governance expert Helen Bird said that NAB needs to be upfront about whether it is using AI to replace these roles, and NSW Senator Tony Sheldon urged the bank to come clean about the role of AI and technology.
Around 180 roles will also be offshored to NAB offices in Vietnam and India, according to the Finance Sector Union statement.
Where Is NAB Still Hiring?
In FY25, NAB grew proprietary home lending partly by onboarding approximately 270 new proprietary home lenders, and its costs included additional proprietary lenders and frontline bankers to support growth. Proprietary channel drawdowns rose to 41% of total drawdowns in FY25 from 38%.
Two listings on the NAB careers site show the kind of frontline roles NAB is advertising this week.
- The Home Lending Specialist Hub role in Adelaide is Permanent Full time, opened on Oct 19 2026 and has a closing time of 00:25 AEDT on Oct 24 2026, just after midnight. It asks for strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build rapport quickly, a self-starter who is driven, proactive, and able to work independently as well as part of a team, a passion for helping others achieve their financial goals, experience with business development and tech-savvy expertise, with the ability to adapt to new tools and platforms, with experience in the finance or banking sector preferred, particularly in lending.
- The Customer Advisor role at Macquarie Shopping Centre is Permanent Part time and closes on Nov 3 2026. The listed hours run from 9:00am to 4:30pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and from 9:00am to 5:30pm on Thursday.
Both listings warn that candidate screening and interviews may be conducted prior to the closing date, and the Macquarie listing adds we therefore encourage you to apply at your earliest opportunity. The Macquarie listing says all new Customer Advisors will benefit from NAB’s tailored career development programs, upskilling and mobility opportunities.
Mortgage broking is another landing spot one broker points to. Melbourne broker Niti Bhargava said there will probably be a lot of people emerging as brokers. The NAB announcement does not address broker roles, and NAB declined to comment further. NAB’s own proprietary channel accounted for 47.7% of home loans during the first half, or the six months ending 31 March, a figure the bank published in May.
How Does This Fit With Cuts at Other Australian Banks?
NAB is the latest of several. ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos moved to make 3,500 job cuts and the removal of about 1,000 contractors in September 2025, the round in which ANZ announced major staff cuts. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank proposed cutting 137 jobs last month, and Westpac had removed only 102 roles under its Catalyst program.
Automation has already reached one bank call centre, with Commonwealth Bank's decision to axe contractor call centre jobs after its AI rollout, as AI chatbots cut bank jobs at CBA. NAB shares were down 2.9% after the first few hours of trade on the day of the announcement. Shortly after noon, NAB shares had fallen 2.7% to $38.82.
The market backdrop is weaker too. NAB forecasts the mortgage market to slow from 6.7% growth in FY26 to 2.5% in FY27.
What This Means for NAB Staff and Bank Job Seekers, and What Should You Do Next?
NAB has tied itself in writing to redeployment and reskilling opportunities, and Australian law treats a redundancy as not genuine where the employer could have reasonably given the employee another job within the employer’s business or an associated entity. Staff in corporate, project or risk teams can raise the lending and branch roles on NAB's careers site during consultation.
- Find your instrument. Look up your enterprise agreement through the Fair Work Commission agreement search, because agreement terms might be different to what is in the national standards.
- Check the floor yourself. Count your continuous service and compare it with the table on the Fair Work redundancy pay page, then use the regulator’s Notice and Redundancy Calculator.
- Ask about redeployment in writing. Ask which internal roles you are being considered for, since NAB lists redeployment and reskilling opportunities among its supports.
- Go to a briefing. The FSU sessions on Wednesday 21 October and Thursday 22 October are open to NAB workers.
- Watch results day. More cost detail comes with the release of FY26 results on 5 November 2026.
- Use public support. The government’s What’s Next website is the place the regulator points to for people who have been made redundant or are looking for a new job.
For job seekers outside NAB, the signal is a split market inside one bank. Corporate functions and senior management are shrinking, while NAB's current careers site lists roles such as home lending specialist and branch customer advisor. Readers rebuilding a search can start with how to job search with AI after a layoff.
Related Articles
- Why ANZ Bank Workers Should Read Their CEO's AI Job Cut Warning Closely
- Australia Says AI Has Not Triggered Mass Layoffs Yet and the Data Backs It Up
- Inside Jane Fraser's Ruthless Remake of Citigroup and What It Means for Bank Jobs
- What Santander's Asia Restructuring Means for Banking Jobs and Perks
- Junior Bankers at UBS Must Now Prove They Can Use AI to Get Hired
- Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on Running a Bank in the Age of AI, What Bankers Should Know
- UK Companies Are Cutting High Earners First in the Next Layoff Wave
- An Atlassian Engineer Won Her Job Back After Fighting Its Layoffs
- Emirates NBD Moves to Buy HSBC Turkey Unit Leaving Workers in Limbo
People Also Asked
Q: How many jobs is NAB cutting?
A: NAB expects to cut up to 2,500 roles or ~6% in FY27, including up to 1,500 roles before the end of 2026, and it will also reduce its use of consultants and contractors.
Q: Are NAB branch staff affected by the job cuts?
A: The bank says there will be no material impact to customer-facing banking roles, and the cuts focus on corporate functions and senior management.
Q: What redundancy pay is a NAB worker entitled to?
A: Under the national standards, service of at least 1 year but less than 2 years earns 4 weeks of redundancy pay. NAB says it will pay redundancy entitlements in accordance with applicable industrial instruments, and an award or agreement entitlement might be different to what is in the NES.
Looking for your next opportunity? Metaintro brings together 50M jobs in one place. Create a free profile and start your search today.
For job seekers
Your next role is already posted.
Say what you want next. We search every day and send real, open roles, with help getting ready for each.
- MatchCompare live roles against your current evidence.
- PositionTurn proof projects into role-specific applications.
- ImproveUse market feedback to keep the skill plan current.
