NAB hires independent customer advocate


National Australia Bank (NAB) has appointed Clare Petre as the new independent customer advocate for the bank’s wealth products, services and advice, where she would also contribute to the advice remediation work of the bank’s Customer Response Initiative (CRI).
In her role, Petre would extend her focus to the customer complaints systems and processes across NAB’s wealth business and provide an independent voice for NAB customers, replacing Dimity Kingsford-Smith who recently returned to her full-time role as Professor of Law at the University of NSW.
NAB chief customer officer, consumer banking and wealth, Andrew Hagger, said the customer advocate role had proven invaluable to the management and resolution of complaints in NAB’s financial advice and complaints process.
“Ms Petre is continuing the work of her predecessor and challenging us to think differently about how we can achieve the best outcomes for our customers, including supportive and fair complaints processes, with a particular focus on supporting customers who may be vulnerable such as the elderly in the complaints process,” he said.
Petre, who is currently the chair of the Code of Conduct Committee for the Australian Council for International Development, and the deputy chair of the Asylum Seekers Centre, would also continue to progress the CRI, which was designed to identify and compensate customers for non-compliant advice by advisers.
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