NAB quit political donations to be 'clean'

The head of National Australia Bank has told a parliamentary committee it stopped giving political donations in order to be "clean".

Chief executive Andrew Thorburn explained the board's decision to a hearing in Canberra on Thursday, claiming the donations were being incorrectly misinterpreted and misconstrued.

"We felt that to be clean, direct and decisive our board decided to stop making such payments to political parties at commonwealth, state and local level," he said.