NAB begins offshore hiring just days after axing 2,500 Aussie staff

Banking giant NAB has begun the hiring process for offshore staff in five locations across Asia, just days after announcing the termination of 2,500 Australian workers.

Last week, NAB said it would axe 2,500 jobs total before the end of the 2026–27 fiscal year, with 1,500 to be removed before the end of the 2026 calendar year.

The move prompted union fury, as well as criticism from staff.

According to NAB CEO Andrew Irvine, the cuts are part of the bank’s initiative to make outcomes more efficient and to improve productivity.

“We will improve productivity, risk outcomes and execution to be a simpler and more efficient bank,” he said.

“These changes are expected to improve outcomes for customers by reducing duplication and speeding up decision making. We are particularly focused on reducing the size of corporate functions.”

Now, NAB has listed 172 positions across Asia, including 103 in Ho Chi Minh City, 28 in Hanoi, 36 in Gurugram, just outside New Delhi, as well as three in Bangalore and two in Singapore.

Jobs include management positions in business lending and wealth. In a listing for an associate vice president of financial planning and analysis for NAB’s private wealth division, the bank said: “At NAB India, we’re ramping up and growing at a very fast pace.”

This job was listed on 20 October, the same day that the bank announced the 2,500-job cut.

Speaking with The Australian Financial Review, Vikas Kumar, International Business specialist at the University of Sydney, said this was likely a cost-reducing and efficiency move for the bank.

“I can see from NAB’s perspective, this is an efficiency-related decision, and maybe lower costs could be one of the reasons,” he said.

“But the more important issue – which is I think relevant to the entire industry and the country – is about capability. If we keep getting this kind of work done outside, it takes away the opportunity for younger people to learn from the work … we might lose our capability to develop that expertise.”

Offshoring specialists have also reportedly said that NAB is trying to increase its overseas workforce to reduce costs. Currently, it has 7,000 offshore workers, making up 18 per cent of its staff.

Moving the workforce overseas could compromise skills development in areas like AI here in Australia.

Other major banks also making cuts

All four of the major Australian banks are making cuts, with Westpac announcing last week that it would cut roughly 250 jobs just this month, 140 of which would be impacted immediately.

Elsewhere, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is also having to fight off speculation of offshore growth as local numbers dwindle.

CBA staffers interrogated the board earlier this month over the new Bangalore-based office complex, particularly as local workforce numbers continue to dwindle and offshore staff numbers continue to grow.

One staffer questioned the bank’s intentions for the new building, to which chairman Paul O’Malley responded that the bank was looking to invest heavily in its cyber obligations and increase its defences for financial crime and fraud.

“We’ve got great capability in Australia, but the risk and opportunity to do better in cyber requires us to invest in skills and capabilities – and we’re doing that absolutely substantively in Australia,” he said.

“But we do need to look for complementary skills all around the world, and we hire people from offshore.”

CBA CEO Matt Comyn also said the office is not an indicator of future offshoring plans nor a sign that data and records would be shifted overseas.

“We’re not planning to increase the number of employees in India, and then secondly, all of the data and systems and records remain in Australia,” he said.

Concerns from the CBA staffers come at a time when local staff numbers are falling.

Over the last two years, the bank has cut what is believed to be over 1,000 roles, many of which are believed to be related to its increased AI investment and rollout.

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