CBA offers $23m to poor advice victims

In a statement yesterday, the bank said Promontory Financial Group – which was appointed to oversee the Open Advice Review program – has confirmed all assessments have been completed for customers of Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited and Financial Wisdom Limited who requested a review of their financial advice.

Of more than 8,600 assessments completed, CBA has offered approximately $23 million in compensation, including interest, said the bank’s executive general manager of the advice review program Leif Gamertsfelder.

“In cases where a customer received poor advice and lost money as a result, we have apologised and offered compensation,” he said.

“Our priority now is to work with customers who are considering their assessment outcome, of their independent customer advocate, and respond to any queries or address any concerns they have as soon as possible.”

Promontory is currently completing its independent review of advice assessed through the Open Advice Program and is expected to release a financial report on 31 March.

Last month, ifa reported that the family of a former CBA customer, who claimed he received poor quality personal financial advice from a bank teller, had decided to engage an independent advocate in an effort to recover the “thousands of dollars” lost.

The latest report by Promontory, released in September 2016, stated that CBA had made more changes to its processes in its client compensation scheme, this time dropping the requirement to call customers in cases where advice files are missing.

This was after the bank said in February 2016 that it had ramped up efforts to track down some formerly-aligned advisers and their missing paperwork.