Banks have acknowledged an industry-wide review by ASIC into fees for ongoing financial planning services that were not provided... NAB profit rises 4%; maintains dividend...
The Australian Securities Investment Commission review included a situation previously raised by ANZ last year where some financial planning clients did not receive the documented annual review component of the Prime Access package of services between 2006 and 2013.
ANZ first identified the issue and reported it to ASIC in 2013, in accordance with its obligations under the Corporations Act.
ANZ managing director Wealth Australia Alexis George said, “We want to again apologise to our clients for not delivering all of the Prime Access services we promised and assure them we have been working hard to finalise remaining reimbursements by the end of this year.
“We’ve also significantly improved our processes, training and compliance supervision to ensure this does not happen again,” Ms George said.
ANZ has already reimbursed more than $20 million of Prime Access adviser service fees (plus earnings) since August 2015. In total, ANZ expects to reimburse about $49 million to around 10,300 customers by the end of 2016.
Commonwealth Bank also commented on ASIC's report and stated it has started fee refunds for affected advice customers from as far back as 2007 and aim to complete by June 2017.
It expects to refund approximately $105 million in fees plus interest and action is underway to avoid the issue happening again.
NAB profit rises 4%; maintains dividend
(Bloomberg) -- National Australia Bank Ltd., the nation’s third-largest by assets, posted a 4 percent increase in full-year cash earnings on its domestic banking and wealth management businesses.
Unaudited cash profit, which excludes one-time items, rose to A$6.48 billion ($4.96 billion) in the year ended Sept. 30, from A$5.84 billion a year earlier, the Melbourne-based lender said Thursday in a regulatory filing. That beat the A$6.39 billion mean estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The better-than-expected results come even as banks face headwinds from higher funding costs, lower interest margins and rising bad-debt charges. Over the past year, NAB chief executive officer Andrew Thorburn has sped the bank’s exit from low-returning assets to focus on Australia and New Zealand. This year, that included selling 80 percent of its life-insurance business and spinning off U.K.-based Clydesdale Bank.
“The strategy to focus on the core Australian and New Zealand business appears to be paying off,” said David Ellis, an analyst at Morningstar in Sydney. “The pressure on net interest margins remain a concern for National Australia and more broadly for the sector. Besides that, expenses appear to be well managed and the loan loss rate for the lender is well below its main peers.”
ANZ first identified the issue and reported it to ASIC in 2013, in accordance with its obligations under the Corporations Act.
ANZ managing director Wealth Australia Alexis George said, “We want to again apologise to our clients for not delivering all of the Prime Access services we promised and assure them we have been working hard to finalise remaining reimbursements by the end of this year.
“We’ve also significantly improved our processes, training and compliance supervision to ensure this does not happen again,” Ms George said.
ANZ has already reimbursed more than $20 million of Prime Access adviser service fees (plus earnings) since August 2015. In total, ANZ expects to reimburse about $49 million to around 10,300 customers by the end of 2016.
Commonwealth Bank also commented on ASIC's report and stated it has started fee refunds for affected advice customers from as far back as 2007 and aim to complete by June 2017.
It expects to refund approximately $105 million in fees plus interest and action is underway to avoid the issue happening again.
NAB profit rises 4%; maintains dividend
(Bloomberg) -- National Australia Bank Ltd., the nation’s third-largest by assets, posted a 4 percent increase in full-year cash earnings on its domestic banking and wealth management businesses.
Unaudited cash profit, which excludes one-time items, rose to A$6.48 billion ($4.96 billion) in the year ended Sept. 30, from A$5.84 billion a year earlier, the Melbourne-based lender said Thursday in a regulatory filing. That beat the A$6.39 billion mean estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The better-than-expected results come even as banks face headwinds from higher funding costs, lower interest margins and rising bad-debt charges. Over the past year, NAB chief executive officer Andrew Thorburn has sped the bank’s exit from low-returning assets to focus on Australia and New Zealand. This year, that included selling 80 percent of its life-insurance business and spinning off U.K.-based Clydesdale Bank.
“The strategy to focus on the core Australian and New Zealand business appears to be paying off,” said David Ellis, an analyst at Morningstar in Sydney. “The pressure on net interest margins remain a concern for National Australia and more broadly for the sector. Besides that, expenses appear to be well managed and the loan loss rate for the lender is well below its main peers.”
