Going into 2021, you would think the concept of a social licence to operate would have more currency among the tin-eared bankers of Australia.
It wasn’t just Attorney-General Christian Porter who waited until the last Friday before Christmas to take out the trash. The big four banks are pretty good at it too.
The corporate community knows that AGMs held on a Friday tend to get less coverage and scrutiny, so it was no surprise that NAB chose the end of last week. The bank knew it was going to cop a grilling on climate policies, while a large minority of its shareholders once again rejected the board’s recommendation and voted 26.8% in favour of a shareholder resolution calling for more transparent reporting on its move out of lending to coal, oil and gas companies.
Then you have the question of responsible lending and the gambling debate.
