National Australia Bank says its chief executive will take about two months leave around the scheduled release of the findings from the financial services royal commission.
A spokesman for Australia's fourth-largest lender said CEO Andrew Thorburn would take a holiday after its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, where investors are likely to cast a protest vote against the pay packages of its top executives.
Thorburn would "return to work for the release of the Royal Commission's final report, and to consider and lead NAB's response," a spokesman said in an email.
"He will then take a month's long service leave to refresh, recharge and spend time with his family before returning to lead NAB through the next stage of our transformation."
NAB Chief Financial Officer Gary Lennon will act as CEO in Thorburn's absence.
Billions of dollars have been wiped off the value of NAB and its three larger rivals this year as the royal commission exposed a greed-driven culture in which staff were incentivised to mislead customers.
The inquiry is due to release its final report by February 1, 2019.
Analysts expect the report will recommend substantial structural and regulatory changes in the banking, financial advice and fund management sectors.
The lawyers running the inquiry have said they may recommend referring some cases to criminal prosecutors.
The CEOs of NAB's three rivals - Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac and ANZ - will take about three weeks off from next week and return to work in mid-January, as is common practice in Australia.
Thorburn's holiday is scheduled to start after NAB's annual shareholders' meeting where investors are expected to vote down the bank's executive pay plans, reflecting widespread anger against the sector as a result of the inquiry.
"It's hard to think that investors could be more disappointed than they already are, but this probably won't be helpful," Dennis Shore, a representative of the Australian Shareholders' Association, referring to Thorburn's long holiday.
"There's a lot of work to be done so this does seems unusual, but on the other hand you can see the need for the leader of the bank to be in good shape to tackle the task ahead over the next year or two."
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