Research. Technology. People. Access to new thinking, global innovations and emerging trends. These are things that matter to our health customers – and the reason why we’re restructuring our business to suit what you need. We understand what will help you move ahead and make a difference – and we want to work with you to set you up for success.

Today, health, agriculture and education represent almost a quarter of the Australian workforce. That’s hardly surprising. Together, the three sectors account for 15 per cent of our economy and are among our top six most productive industries when compared to global peers.

All three have experienced considerable growth over the past five years and there’s every sign this will continue over the next couple of decades. Australia has a solid footing in these industries and, with technological change, our natural and human capital, great institutions, and infrastructure investment, these industries are ripe for innovation and growth.

A healthy outlook

The health sector is particularly well placed in this regard, both locally and globally. Advancements in medical technology, greater health awareness and demand from Asia for our expertise are supporting long-term prospects for an industry that already employs more than 1.5 million Australians.

At the same time, growth corridors in places like Greater Western Sydney and Melbourne’s north-west and south-east are calling for more and more GPs, hospitals and a range of other healthcare services.

There are other sectors likely to benefit from increasing demand moving forward, too.

Professional services are slated for growth, as are a number of emerging sectors – often propelled by a range of newly-imagined technologies.

This will necessarily affect the health sector as new ways of assisting customers, and doing business, open up a variety of options to healthcare practitioners.

Good news for SMEs, with a little help

It’s with this in mind that NAB’s Chief Customer Officer of Business and Private Banking, Anthony Healy, is keen to encourage Australia’s health SMEs to ‘go forth and grow’.

At the same time, he acknowledges the part others in the economy can play.

“The potential for growth in these industries will only translate into opportunities for Australia if banks like NAB can support such prerequisites as innovation, trade and investment,” Healy says.

A positive sign of the times

This is the attitude behind the new operating model in our Business and Private Banking division. We have made key changes that will bring teams together in local geographies to further support our customers, sharpen our focus on specialisation and support our growth ambition.

Called NAB Partners, the new geographic model is about bringing local leadership and the best of the business bank directly to customers, through a single leader in each geographic area. It’s about ensuring local leaders and their teams can focus on their customers and connect them with our deep, specialist industry knowledge in specialist business sectors such as agribusiness, health, government and commercial real estate.

In the health sector, we will double NAB’s health bankers by 2020, under the leadership of Cameron Fuller, NAB’s Customer Executive, Growth Sectors, who oversees emerging sectors and opportunities. It also means a new face at the helm of NAB Health, and Health View. NAB Health Customer Executive Kate Galvin, who hails from NAB Private South, will oversee NAB Health’s business unit and with it our wide range of articles drawing out the issues that affect the health sector most.

Backing the bold for the long term

NAB has already been recognised as the Australian business bank that does industry specialisation best, with its win in the Best Industry Specialisation category at the Australian Business Banking Awards in 2017.

For 10 years now, we’ve been backing the health sector with the creation of Medfin, HICAPS and NAB Health, along with our team of 250 specialist bankers. We’ve always looked to innovate, making payments flow more efficiently and transparently between private health insurance companies, healthcare providers and patients. HICAPS Go, developed with NAB Labs and NAB Ventures, is a great example of this. We also remain committed to growing relationships and advocacy across corporate health, insurers and government.

What we want to do now is continue our specialist focus and become even better at it – delivering our service across more areas, driving greater specialist knowledge and providing better service for our valued customers.

Moving forward, we want to be the bank that best supports our customers to grow and succeed in the years to come – in fact, we want to become the world’s best business bank. With our new geographic model, leadership team and commitment to doubling our number of health bankers by 2020, we believe we’re making significant steps in that direction, and look forward to sharing the journey with you.