"While we have made progress, it is not enough to be recognised in executive short-term variable rewards in 2019."
In 2018 Mentis received fixed remuneration of A$1,583,239 ($1.7m) although three months of the year included her time in her previous role at NAB so it's possible the figure could be lower once just her NZ job is accounted for.
But the board's stance means that fixed remuneration will not have changed in 2019.
She may also lose up to A$2.04m in variable rewards made up of cash and shares. That was the maximum amount she could have been awarded last financial year although she only received an award to the value of A$1.42m made up of A$571,200 in cash and A$856,800 in shares.
Exact details of the amount each executive will miss out on won't be revealed until November 15 when NAB's remuneration report is published.
Across the executive team Chronican said the maximum short-term variable award forfeited was A$14.4m.
NAB was highly criticised in the banking Royal Commission and its former chief executive Andrew Thorburn and former chairman Sir Ken Henry resigned as a result.
Thorburn, also a former chief executive of the BNZ, forfeited A$21m worth of deferred variable rewards.
The NAB announcement comes as ANZ revealed this week that its former chief executive David Hisco left behind approximately A$7.4m in variable remuneration payments after departing the bank following an investigation into personal expenses.
Hisco left his A$3m plus a year job in mid-June following allegations he "mis-characterised" certain personal expenses as business expenses, including wine storage and the use of chauffeur-driven cars.
When his employment ceased he was awarded no long term incentives or variable remuneration for 2019 and he immediately forfeited all unvested deferred remuneration, according to the bank's annual report.
Mentis was the highest paid of the four big Kiwi bank CEOs last year receiving A$3.57m.
Meanwhile BNZ will increase the annual leave of its nearly 5000 staff from four weeks to six weeks from January after reaching an agreement with First Union over collective bargaining talks.
Mentis said the increase was designed to improve the wellbeing of its staff.
"Increasing annual leave makes sense on many levels. It's about valuing our people and their commitment to deliver for our customers.
"No matter the job, people need balance and time to pursue activities and interest outside of work. Six weeks leave gives our people time to plan and enjoy their breaks, and best serves our people to be healthy and well."
A spokesman for the bank said the move would be cost neutral.
Callum Francis, First Union national organiser for finance, said union members had been asking for changes to basic conditions like annual leave for years.
"This six week agreement is really just the start. We are looking for other banks to follow suit."
Francis said New Zealand's big banks made billions of dollars a year and had the ability to give their staff more than just the minimum requirements under law.
"These are companies that can afford it. If one bank can do it, I can't see why others can't follow suit."
The increase has not come without other changes.
Francis said BNZ staff would lose 10 days domestic leave which covered situations like looking after sick family members, going to appointments or needing to stay home for maintenance people to fix problems.
A BNZ spokesman confirmed the domestic leave would go.
"Historically we've had domestic leave which was discretionary and used for a narrow range of activities."
"The new annual leave offering gives all our permanent employees flexibility to use 30 days annual leave how and where they see fit."
Francis said some people would not benefit from the change as much as others but overall it decided annual leave was better as it could be accrued and paid out if people left the bank.
It did have some concerns that annual leave couldn't be taken on short notice like domestic or sick leave but was working with the bank to try and make sure people could access it when they needed to.
Francis said it was also worried that people taking more annual leave would leave other team members feeling stretched to cover the absence and it wanted the bank to also increase staff numbers to cover the change.
"That was one of the concerns we raised in negotiations."
Mentis told the Herald that it had asked its leaders to make sure staff did take the leave and to schedule it appropriately.
It was also training its leaders as concierges to help support its branches. The finance team which includes the bank's chief financial officer was the first to do this training and the CFO had already undertaken relief work in one of its branches, she said.
Mentis said other teams had used crowd-sourcing when it needed more work done.
"We are just trying to think differently. The way we are working allows our people to be more flexible."
The spokesman said BNZ was also offering increased parental and family leave, and superannuation provisions.
