A man of honour puts the bank first

Despite the understandable protests of the chairman, Michael Chaney, the events are inextricably linked because they go to the heart of the issues raised by the handling of the write-off announcement and its fallout - confidence and reputation. Stewart knew that, and he also appreciated that NAB could not win either way.

Put the news of his long-awaited retirement out now and he could be seen to be taking the blame for the 13.5 per cent share price fall and the investor backlash that followed, including the handling of the bank's $850 million bond issue the day before the write-off warning.

Delay it, and the effect would be to set back the handover to the new internal regime, which is now needed for the bank to move ahead after Stewart restored NAB's fortunes following the disastrous currency trading scandal of 2003-04 that undermined the very pillars the bank was built on.

That aside, Stewart's almost-untarnished reputation was always going to take a hit after last week's events, so putting a couple of months between now and an announcement would have had little effect on his NAB obituary.

The net effect has been to draw a line under the episodes of the past week - and the last tiny proportion of what will be an almost five-year roller-coaster career at the country's second largest bank.

For almost all that time, Stewart has done little wrong and a huge amount of right.

He hands over an institution that is in so much better shape than the hugely damaged franchise he inherited which, in his early days, was still in the process of eating itself. Its rivals had only to open their doors each day to take business from it.

Stewart had intended to stay only a year. But so deep were its troubles that, at the age of 59, he has had to dedicate almost the rest of his executive career to fixing the bank.

He has also ended up staying longer because he wanted to ensure he could put the right successor in place.

While his replacement, Cameron Clyne, is an intelligent, hard-working individual whom Chaney and Stewart believe possesses the wisdom, strategic thinking, modesty and "team-captain" skills required of an NAB chief executive, he is also 40 years old and has run only a small part of the bank's empire.

Compared with Mike Smith at ANZ, Gail Kelly at Westpac, and Ralph Norris at Commonwealth, Clyne is at a disadvantage, despite his 18 monthsas head of the New Zealand division.

His short spell at the sharp end hardly matches those of more experienced hands whom he pipped for the top job but who will now be in a hand-holding exercise for the first year of his tenure to make sure Stewart's legacy is not short-lived.

But Clyne was identified more than a year ago as a strong candidate. His position firmed enough in January to indicate he was the most promising successor.

Since then, board members have been looking at his performance to ensure they have the right man.

Once that was clear, yesterday's date was pencilled in in a heavily orchestrated timetable based round Stewart's desire to finish on December 31.

The diarists came up with a transitional start date of October 1 and a two-month notice period to tell the ASX and introduce the new man. What NAB had not planned were the events of the past fortnight, when its exposure to the US subprime housing crisis moved from being an unsettling dream to a full-blown nightmare. Even the best-laid plans can be derailed.

So Stewart will leave NAB with hands that are not quite as safe as previously considered but in doing so he ensures that Clyne comes into the job with a clean start and a decent platform on which to build.

In the meantime, NAB has a huge amount to thank Stewart for - not least his last unselfish act of going when he has.