ASIC has banned former National Australia Bank branch manager, Rabih Awad, from engaging in credit activities and providing financial services for seven years.

The ban is the result of an on-going ASIC investigation, following a breach report lodged by NAB alleging that bank employees in the greater western Sydney area were accepting false documents in support of loan applications and falsely attributing loans as having been referred by NAB introducers in order to obtain undue commissions.

ASIC found that Mr Awad recklessly gave NAB information and documentation in loan applications that was false or misleading.  Mr Awad was found to have given NAB false payslips, letters of employment, and entered false referee contact details in NAB’s lending systems in multiple home loan applications.

A majority of the false documentation submitted to NAB by Mr Awad was provided to him by a real estate agent who was previously registered as a NAB Introducer.

ASIC also found that:

• Mr Awad received the false documents directly from the NAB Introducer rather than the customer, in violation of NAB’s Introducer Program; and
• on occasion, Mr Awad received false documents from the NAB Introducer via email to his personal email account, before forwarding the documents to his NAB email account and subsequently attaching them to various customers loan applications.　

Mr Awad has the right to lodge an application for review of ASIC’s decision with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Background

On 16 November 2017, NAB announced a remediation program for home loan customers after an internal review, prompted by whistleblower reports it had received, found that some home loans may not have been established in accordance with NAB’s policies.

NAB identified that around 2,300 home loans since 2013 may have been submitted with inaccurate customer information and/or documentation, or incorrect information in relation to NAB’s Introducer Program.

Mr Awad’s banning follows the permanent bans of former NAB employees, Danny Merheb and Samar Merjan (also known as Samar Awad) from engaging in credit activities and providing financial services (refer: 18-205MR).