(Reuters) - National Australia Bank Ltd said Chief Executive Officer Andrew Thorburn has cancelled his two-month leave on Tuesday after the release of a year-long inquiry report into widespread misconduct in the nation's financial sector singled out Australia's No. 4 bank.
The report on Monday called out NAB's Thorburn and Chairman Ken Henry, saying they appeared unwilling to accept responsibility for past wrongs of the bank.
"Having heard from both the CEO, Mr. Thorburn, and the Chair, Dr. Henry, I am not as confident as I would wish to be that the lessons of the past have been learned," wrote the retired High Court judge who ran the inquiry, Kenneth Hayne, in his final report.
Thorburn, who has cut short his previously announced two-month break, said in a statement "I am disappointed that the Commissioner formed this view. I know that it is not so."
"At NAB we are determined to change and accept that we will ultimately be measured by the actions we take," Thorburn added.
The recommendations from the inquiry heard shocking revelations of the financial industry's wrongdoing, including that fees were charged to the accounts of dead people and that cash bribes were paid over the counter to win mortgage business, wiping A$60 billion from the country's top finance stocks.
NAB is due to report its first-quarter results on Friday.
(Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
