Australia\'s NAB cuts 300 staff over wrongdoing

The casualties of Australia's banking crisis continue - with National Australia Bank's CEO Andrew Thorburn announcing that 300 - mostly lower level employees..

Have been axed or left the company, after an internal investigation into wrongdoing.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MIKE INGRAM, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, WH IRELAND, SAYING: "Even though a lot of the issues cited were made at a senior level it always seems to be the foot soldiers that pay the price.

" NAB's wealth management arm is accused of charging hundreds of thousands of retirees for financial advice they never received Revelations made in an ongoing public inquiry into the Australian banking system.

Which has also seen the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac group All in the firing line.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MIKE INGRAM, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, WH IRELAND, SAYING: "Banks have moved away from customers.

We've had a badly handled shift from base pay to incentive based pay.

We've had situations where systems and procedures are no longer fit for purpose.

All of these things are very common in the financial service industry." The terminations represent less than one per cent of staff And while executives may have largely escaped the crisis they may suffer in other ways.

The scandals and expected fines to follow have already knocked almost $39 billion from the four big bank's market cap... And according to NAB spooked off investor interest.