Speaking at an analyst briefing on Monday, Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer said the bank remains committed to its BT Financial Group wealth management subsidiary.
“With respect to wealth, the way we think about this is that we want to help customers throughout their financial lives,” Mr Hartzer said.
“We think customers want and need advice, particularly as the population ages … [We’re in a] sensible place and there is a real distinction now being drawn between where we sit and where others sit.”
He also pointed specifically to the BT Panorama platform, which he described as an “open architecture platform that makes it really easy to manage your money” and one of the signs the bank is committed to the market.
“From a return point of view, the growth is still good and the platform is very efficient, so we think that is attractive,” Mr Hartzer said.
He also said the bank is “conscious to eliminate or minimise clear conflicts where [it] can”.
The comments follow NAB’s announcement last week that it will seek to divest from MLC and establish it as an “independent” financial advice business.
It also follows comments by NAB chief customer officer Andrew Hagger to the royal commission outlining how the institutions (not just NAB) are experiencing difficulty running wealth management businesses in the current environment, saying the “risk-return equation” is now unfavourable.
its ok, they will simply charge their clients are premium for using their services much like they did with bt wrap. And unlike the ANZ the planner scorecard will be sales based, so have no fear
I’m giving Panorama a miss.No doubt with BT they’ll invent another platform in 2019. Millions spent on Panorama but Grandfathering legislation involving deeming of account based pensions is in place penalizing clients who move. Not good business sense. Now we’ve got the Royal Commission asking questions why AMP didn’t invest monies into older outdated platforms questioning the high fees these people pay.
you have misunderstood Panorama Bob, there wont be any pension deeming issues when BT completes the migration as a NEW Pension will not be created.
cheers thanks.
Like the board of a footy team saying they fully stand behind the coach
Except in this instance they have paid a lot of money to keep the coach. No one would want to buy Panorama given the development $’s BT have stated they are investing. It might be efficient but it sure seems expensive to develop on!
I hear you there! Why spend so much money reinventing the platform wheel?
but chief pano man has left the building