FILE PHOTO: A view of a National Australia Bank (NAB) logo in Sydney, Australia, May 5, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo

By Roshan Thomas and Himanshi Akhand

(Reuters) -National Australia Bank on Thursday named Inder Singh as its group chief financial officer, effective March 2026.

Singh joins the country's biggest business lender from insurer QBE , where he served as finance chief since 2018.

QBE, Australia's biggest insurer by market value, said Singh will remain with the company while it looks for his replacement.

Singh has more than 20 years of experience in financial services, including investment banking at lenders such as Deutsche Bank and UBS in Australia.

He will oversee NAB's finance operations along with its strategy and development teams.

Earlier this year, NAB was forced to search for a new finance chief after rival Westpac poached its then-CFO Nathan Goonan.

Shaun Dooley, who has been serving as acting CFO since then, will return to his permanent role as chief risk officer in March 2026, NAB said.

"Inder has been working in a highly regulated and complicated sector. He has ... been heavily involved in transformation and technology investment and initiatives," NAB CEO Andrew Irvine said in a statement.

"Inder Singh's appointment is seen as a stabilising signal - his global track record in banking finance gives investors confidence in NAB's execution at a time when margins are under pressure," said Hebe Chen, market analyst at Vantage Markets.

Shares of the lender were up 2.1%, while the broader benchmark ASX 200 was largely unchanged as of 0347 GMT.

(Reporting by Roshan Thomas and Himanshi Akhand in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Nichiket Sunil; Editing by Maju Samuel and Sonia Cheema)