It's 4.34am on Saturday morning as I type these words.
No, I haven't fallen for one of those 'Get up at 4am to be as productive as this guru' fads.
I'm up, in part at least, because my 6yo woke me up an hour ago, and I couldn't get back to sleep.
Truth be told, these days I've become a morning person. Maybe I'm getting old, or maybe my body has just adapted to the sleeping patterns of my young bloke.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right? I'm in bed earlier than I used to be, so I'm up earlier, too.
And there's something about the quiet solitude just before dawn.
(Yes, he went back to sleep. He's sleeping soundly. I, on the other hand…)
I wonder how the soon-to-be-former NAB Chair, Ken Henry, and CEO Andrew Thorburn, have slept these past few days.
I doubt either man got much sleep on Monday night after Royal Commissioner Kenneth Hayne skewered them both in his report. Tuesday likely wasn't much better. A combination of wishing they could have their time in the witness box again, combined with trying to work out how to dig themselves out of the PR hole they were in, I'd imagine.
Of course, by Thursday night, both men had fallen on their swords, deciding that they just couldn't win the battle. Public trust in banks is likely at an all-time low, and NAB, having had its leaders singled out, was in the toughest spot.
I can only assume the other NAB directors were forming the view that both men's positions were untenable. What role, if any, they had in Henry and Thorburn's decision, we may never know.
On one hand, I could imagine that an enormous weight has been lifted off their shoulders, much as former Senator, Sam Dastyari, described the experience of resigning from parliament. Knowing that the ordeal was now over, barring the professional eulogies, must be a relief after a torrid six or so months.
On the other, I wonder if they wake regularly, just trying to grasp how it all went so wrong. To be clear, I don't know either man. I've never met them, and haven't spoken or corresponded with them.
But I imagine it might go something like this:
We were honest with the Royal Commission. Pragmatic. Realistic. We tried to answer questions in a detailed, professional way. Running a bank isn't easy. We can't know everything, and NAB's antiquated systems can only deal with so much. Mistakes happen, and they'll be fixed, but things weren't as bad as people were painting them. And nothing sinister or systemic.
Sure, that might have come across as a lack of contrition, And yes, maybe the tone seemed defensive and dogmatic. But we were trying to be honest, upfront and realistic.
Were the other bank CEOs really, truly, as sorry as they appeared? And weren't they also just doing their best, just like us? Wasn't it — in some small or large part — a dog-and-pony show to please the cameras? Surely that's not the only way we'll be judged….
Or maybe it wasn't. I don't know, and we may never find out. But I can't help but wonder if the removal, at least ostensibly at their own hand, of two of the most senior bankers in the country, owed more to form than function… to spin, rather than substance.
That's the conversation I pick up this week with my friend and colleague Anirban 'Doc' Mahanti in The Motley Fool's podcast, Motley Fool Money.
(We also talk about the renewed trade tensions between the US and China, the revolving doors being metaphorically put in corner offices around corporate Australia, the RBA's concession on interest rates and we dip into the Fool mailbag.)
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Have a great weekend.
Fool on!
Scott Phillips
Chief Investment Officer
Motley Fool Australia
