The Australian bank is to pay compensation to clients for errors dating back as far as 2001.

National Australia Bank’s wealth management business will pay clients hit by tax and income estimate errors a total A$25 million ($18.19 million) in a compensation programme.

The programme was initiated after a review was carried out on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s request. The issues in question date back as far as 2001.

There are 62,000 wealth management clients who will be compensated on average A$400 per person, NAB said in a statement. The compensation programme follows an independent review on its platform Navigator that PriceWaterhouseCoopers was commissioned to conduct after a request by ASIC.

The issues that were found in the review were related to tax estimation and income estimation errors allocated to customers’ accounts on closure. 

“These errors date back to 2001 and are centred on processes and controls relating to Navigator – a platform NAB inherited when we acquired Aviva in 2009. Our teams have worked extensively, with oversight by PwC and ASIC, to ensure the right processes, systems and controls are now in place,” said Andrew Hagger, group executive NAB Wealth.

“These errors are in no way related to the quality of NAB Wealth’s advice to its customers," Hagger added.

ASIC stated that it is focusing on customer compensation due to system errors. There have been a number of announcements by the Australian watchdog on similar issues. The most recent was on 17 June when it was announced that Macquarie Investment Management will refund clients after a review.