The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has written to National Australia Bank (NAB) chief Andrew Thorburn about a proposed industry compliance scheme.

The FSU says its members should not be caught up in the Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) new industry compliance breach reporting regime for Beneficiary Nomination Forms.

FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said says hundreds of the union’s members in NAB’s financial planning operations would be caught up in the new regime.

Her letter claims that the NAB inquiry into the witnessing of Beneficiary Nomination Forms by workers in financial planning shows issues in the way the bank handles such documents.

 “It has now come to light there are similar concerns in the NAB’s business bank, retail bank and call centres,” the union claims.

The FSU says its members were simply following their training and normal practice.

“Our members working for NAB have followed their training and done what was normal practice in the bank and they deserve to be treated fairly and not to have these issues reported under the ABA’s new industry compliance breach policy,” Angrisano said.

She said NAB’s witnessing policies had not been identified as a problem in quality checks.

In fact, the union claims no process, procedure or licensing standard at NAB gave employees any indication that the practice was a problem.

“We think it’s time for the NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn to step in and take responsibility for the systemic and cultural issues around the witnessing of documents at the bank,” Angrisano said.