Major banks reveal number of sacked advisers

In October, CBA, ANZ, NAB and Westpac appeared before the standing committee on economics as part of an inquiry, known as ‘review of the four major banks’.

Last week, the responses from the banks to questions on notice from the committee were released, including answers to queries on the banning and removal of financial advisers.

According to CBA’s submission, from 1 October 2015 to 14 October 2016, 15 advisers had been reported to ASIC, while approximately 20 advisers had been terminated.

Meanwhile, Westpac confirmed that out of the 22 advisers who had been notified to ASIC for serious compliance concerns, six were authorised representatives and had their status terminated, while 16 were employees.

Of those 16 employees, four had been dismissed, Westpac said. 

At the same time, NAB confirmed that out of the 37 financial planners who left the bank in the years leading up to 2015, 21 planners were dismissed.

About 14 advisers left for reasons unrelated to compliance breaches and two left for “reasons not related to compliance breaches but have been notified to ASIC as planners about whom NAB has compliance concerns”, the submission stated.

In response to the committee’s question regarding how many executives had been terminated as a result of poor adviser behaviour and the removal of advisers, NAB said none.

“No systemic issue warranting the dismissal of senior executives in respect of misconduct or serious breaches of the advisers was identified,” NAB said.

“As such, no senior executive at NAB was dismissed in direct relation to this issue. As a result of organisation change at NAB, the wealth advice business has been restructured and the executive team has significantly changed since 2014.”