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News
www.financialstandard.com.au 22 February 2021 | Volume 19 Number 03
New CommSec trading tool CommSec said it has seen a 200% increase in investors seeking executional information around how trading works as younger people show increased interest in wholesale trading. CommSec said first time traders contributed to around 10% of total trades since February 2020, compared with 4% prior to COVID-19. Additionally, the data found the number of firsttime traders more than doubled since February last year, up to 18% from 8% pre-pandemic. CommSec said most new customers (83%) were under 44 years old, marking a 17% increase compared with pre-COVID trends. In response to more investors entering the market, CommSec has launched CommSec Learn, a series of free learning topics with videos and exercises designed to help investors expand their knowledge. CommSec executive general manager Richard Burns said the bank saw an increase in consumption of its educational materials when COVID hit. “There was a thirst for learning, however, it was interestingly leaning towards more executional topics with fewer clicks on the important basics such as planning or strategizing,” Burns said. “As such, we felt there was an opportunity to help build those important investment foundations and assist investors in hopefully achieving long term success.” Burns said CommSec Learn aims to be an easy way for investors to grow their skills and knowledge, at their own pace, to make informed investment decisions. He added that the tool is not intended to offer personal advice or recommendations, rather it was designed to help investors get a better understanding of their investments and the factors that can affect their performance. “It’s helpful to think of investing as just the beginning of your share market journey. It’s important to regularly monitor the markets and your portfolio, and understand your risk appetite,” Burns said. fs
Invest Blue offers clients SMAs Cornerstone portfolios will be made available on BT Panorama for Invest Blue clients. Invest Blue has partnered with BT, in conjunction with Ironbark and Russell Investment Management, to develop a managed account solution for the advice firm’s client base. The new suite of five managed portfolios, administered on BT Panorama, has been developed exclusively for Invest Blue’s 4000 clients. The separately managed accounts are issued by Ironbark as the responsible entity, with Russell Investment Management as investment manager. BT head of distribution Chris Mather said: “With the Invest Blue investment committee, Russell Investments and Ironbark all working in sync on a contemporary platform, BT Panorama, we’ve been able to deliver a tailored solution for Invest Blue’s advisers and clients.” “BT’s focus on continually improving the digital features on the platform helps advice businesses realise the full extent of the benefits of managed accounts, in terms of efficiency and ease of use for their advisers and clients.” fs
01: Tom Reiher
managing director MMC
MMC acquires super fund administrator Karren Vergara
A
The quote
We are very positive about the opportunities in the sector and that the IFAA Group is the right vehicle to expand our footprint in Australia.
boutique superannuation administrator has been acquired by Kiwi firm MMC in a move to expand its presence in Australia. MMC is now the owner of Brisbanebased IFAA Group after it first bought a stake in March 2020 of nearly 50%. The total consideration for both acquisitions were not disclosed. IFAA owns Superannuation Compliance Services (SCS), a specialist consultancy on superannuation risk management, compliance, audit and training, and Independent Professional Services (IPS), an executive management, admin and company secretarial service provider. The group has made several senior leadership changes following the transition of ownership. For IFAA, Andrew Griffioen was promoted to chief executive in May 2020 after serving as head of strategy. Clinton Nicholas was appointed chief in-
formation officer, while Cathy Connellan was named the general manager of client services. Adam Somerville recently re-joined IFAA as manager of financial services. For SCS, Karen Waldon-White was appointed chief executive in mid-2020 after serving as general manager for over six years. MMC co-founder and managing director Tom Reiher01 said the significant stake made in IFAA last year was intended to be a long-term entry point into Australia. “We are very positive about the opportunities in the sector and that the IFAA Group is the right vehicle to expand our footprint in Australia,” Reiher said. IFAA Group co-founder and managing director Neil Harvey said that changes in the superannuation services market over the last few years saw the firm seek out a partner to “ensure that we could demonstrate underlying financial strength to potential clients and a continuation of the high-quality services our group provides”. fs
Banks return $1.2bn for bad advice Eliza Bavin
Six of Australia’s largest banks have paid or offered a total of $1.24 billion in compensation to customers, according to new ASIC figures. The funds have been returned to customers who suffered loss or detriment due to fees for no service misconduct or non-compliant advice. AMP, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Macquarie, NAB and Westpac undertook the review and remediation programs to compensate affected customers as a result of two major ASIC reviews. The reviews were launched by the regulator in 2015 to look into the extent of failure by the institutions to deliver ongoing advice services to financial advice customers who were paying fees to receive those services. Additionally, the reviews looked into how effectively the institutions supervised their financial advisers to identify and deal with non-compliant advice. NAB leads the ranks in compensation for fee for no service misconduct paying, or offering, $437.5 million to over 636,000 customers. This is followed by Westpac on close to $200 million, CBA on $168 million, AMP on $153 million, ANZ with $80 million and Macquarie with $4.2 million.
NAB tips the scale again for non-compliant advice, repaying 1956 customers over $66 million. ANZ follows on $43 million, Westpac on $42 million, AMP on $33 million and CBA on $9 million. Macquarie was not included. In October 2016 ASIC released findings describing systemic failures in the advice divisions of AMP, ANZ, CBA and NAB, as well as some of their product issuers. It said these included the failure to ensure provision of ongoing advice services to customers who paid fees to receive those services (fees for no service), the failure of advisers to provide those services, and the failure of product issuers to switch off advice fees of customers who did not have a financial adviser. In March 2017 ASIC released finding from its review highlighting how the institutions identified and dealt with non-compliant advice by their advisers between 1 January 2009 and 30 June 2015 and the implementation of a framework for the large-scale review and remediation of customers who received non-compliant advice in the same period. ASIC said it continues to monitor the ongoing implementation of the institutions’ customer review and remediation programs. fs
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