The National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) share price is in the green to start off this week's trading.
Shares in the banking giant are on the move this morning after news it is about to embark on a hiring spree in a couple of its business segments.
Read on for more details.
What's NAB up to this time?
The "big 4 of banking" member wants to place an additional 60 new staff in its private banking and JBWere businesses as part of its growth vision into wealth management.
For reference, JBWere is an Australian wealth manager founded in 1840 with more than $36 billion in funds under administration (FUA). NAB took full ownership of it around 5 years ago.
The decision to increase its headcount follows NAB's previous moves in October 2020 of adding an additional 500 new employees to support its banking businesses across Australia.
As investing trends in Australia shift towards a split of retail investors and tailored products for high net worth individuals (HNWI's), NAB's moves position itself "where the puck is going" so to speak – not where it's coming from.
Some reports even see a 3.7% growth period in the Australian wealth management industry over 2020–21. That's after an incredible growth period from 2018 to date.
For instance, the ASX Australian Investor Study in 2020 found that "close to a quarter of all investors have started investing in the past 2 years".
And for NAB, it appears confident it can deliver on planned moves. The additional 60 staff, made up of bankers, investment advisers and professionals, is set to chip in.
According to reporting from The Australian, NAB's CEO Ross McEwan believes there is significant growth potential in both segments as they are now more embedded within the bank.
This has come about primarily as a result of the royal commission into banking that started in 2018. It unveiled widespread skullduggery on the part of major financial institutions, NAB included.
As such, NAB has been active in its private banking arm for some time now and is now focused on aligning with the broader trends of the Australian investing crowd going forward.
At the time of writing, NAB shares are 1.17% higher than their opening price, now trading at $27.67 apiece.
NAB share price snapshot?
The NAB share price has been on an interesting ride this year to date, climbing 22% into the green since January 1.
This extends its return over the past 12 months to 50%, well ahead of the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO)'s gain of around 25% in this time.
However, over the last month, it has edged lower and now sits around 0.3% in the red.
