Kirkland said it was not yet clear whether the affected customers’ claims had been appropriately handled.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, NAB customer and corporate services group executive Sharon Cook apologised to customers.

“We’re sorry that this happened when a number of our customers were in difficult situations and needed us to be there for them,” Cook said.

“We are focused on ensuring these customers receive the support they need. Following ASIC’s report into hardship practices across the industry, we have also been working on a new approach to supporting customers in financial difficulty. This includes consulting with consumer advocates.”

NAB self-reported the matter to ASIC in October 2023, a month after the regulator announced it had launched Federal Court proceedings against Westpac for similar failures.

In that case, ASIC has alleged that between 2015 and 2022, Westpac did not respond to 229 customer requests for a hardship application within the required 21 days.

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ASIC has put the broader financial lending industry on notice after its report this year found customers in financial distress were being let down by a “cookie-cutter approach” to dealing with hardship requests, and onerous processes.

That review looked at the way Westpac, NAB, ING, Commonwealth Bank, Bank of Queensland, Macquarie and Bendigo Bank, as well as non-bank lenders Resimac, Pepper Money and Liberty Financial, handled hardship applications.

Kirkland said the banking and lending sector more broadly must improve their customer service, and that the regulator was pursuing those issues in a range of ways, “including through directly with lenders about how we think their practices need to improve, but also to enforcement action”.

Consumer Action Law Centre chief executive Stephanie Tonkin said the ASIC review, which uncovered a “bare minimum approach” some lenders were taking in response to hardship applications, must prompt the entire sector to improve standards amid a cost-of-living crisis pushing further people into financial difficulty.

“We operate the national debt helpline and what we see on the frontlines is that before people are reaching out to their bank, they’re making sure they’re doing everything they can to make ends meet,” Tonkin said.

“They’re skipping meals, taking out extra loans, in some instances high-interest loans to afford medicine. By the time someone reaches out to a lender, it’s a very big step and a challenging step. For many people, to learn that their calls for help were just left unanswered is really disappointing.”

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