National Australia Bank’s boss, Andrew Thorburn, has said he believes his attitude and leadership to be the “polar opposite” of how the banking royal commissioner, Kenneth Hayne, described him, and he remains “determined” to stay on in the bank’s top job.

The NAB chief executive has been on a PR offensive since Hayne’s report was made public on Monday afternoon, after the commissioner questioned the ability of the bank’s leadership to initiate top-down change.

Thorburn appeared in back-to-back interviews on Tuesday morning to push back against Hayne’s conclusion, telling Sky Business the commissioner was wrong in his characterisation of both him and NAB’s chair, Ken Henry.

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“I agree that when you read the reference to myself and chairman Ken Henry, I found that upsetting and hard to read,” he said. “I did feel it was harsh. I respect the commissioner’s view that he stated. That is his view. I don’t share it.

“I feel that we are acknowledging; we are making decisions [and] actions that are proving that we want to rebuild trust with customers.

“I am very honoured to be a leader, especially at NAB, and I feel that the way he is describing me is the polar opposite of what I want to be and what I am, and the [sort of way] I am leading inside the company …

“I think we have been contrite. I think this is where we have to be clear. If you go back and look at what I have said, and Ken Henry has said, including in the commission, and other statements we have made, we said we have made mistakes, we are sorry, we want to fix them, that we are making new decisions.”

Thorburn was strident in his defence of Henry.

“The Ken Henry that I know and work with every day, has integrity, has values, puts customers first, lives in a small town in Australia, has always thought long term and done what is right for Australia. That is the Ken Henry I know, not the Ken Henry I read about in the Ken Hayne report.”

In another interview with Melbourne’s 3AW radio station, Thorburn again admitted the bank had not fixed mistakes fast enough, but said it had put in changes “to put our customers first again” before the report was handed down.

“We are making good, and better decisions to put customers first and that is the bigger picture as I see it,” said Thorburn, who has been at NAB since 2005.

“I am acknowledging we have made mistakes and that is not good enough and I have said when we have made them, we haven’t addressed them fast enough. We have just been too slow to do that. That is poor culture, poor practice.

Hayne, a former high court judge, made a point of naming the pair as two executives who had left him “not as confident as I would wish that the lessons of the past have been learned”.

“I was not persuaded that NAB is willing to accept the necessary responsibility for deciding, for itself, what is the right thing to do, and then having its staff act accordingly,” Hayne said.

That mention led to speculation over the pair’s future at the bank, which is among those facing further investigation from regulators, after recommendations from the royal commission.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday morning, both said they were planning to stay on, with Thorburn announcing that he had cancelled his planned long-service leave, which had been scheduled to continue for the rest of the month.

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In the same statement, Henry disagreed with Hayne’s description of his attitude: “In his final report, commissioner Hayne said I seemed unwilling to accept criticism of how the board had dealt with some of the issues raised by the commission.

“I am disappointed that the commissioner formed this view. I know that it is not so. The board and I have reflected deeply on those and other issues and, as I have said previously, we take them very seriously.

“We have said we are not prepared to accept good intentions where urgency, consistency and discipline is required. The board has led a deep examination of our culture, governance and accountability. We are the only bank to publicly release our assessment, which clearly outlines 26 areas we are focusing on to be a better bank.”

Both the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and his opposition counterpart, Chris Bowen, have shied away from giving an opinion as to whether the NAB chiefs should keep their jobs, with both demurring to the market, and the board, to make the decision.