CBA makes hires to lead wealth demerger

Mr Yetton will join after two years as chief executive and managing director of SocietyOne. Prior to that, he spent more than 20 years at Westpac and BT Financial Group, including as group executive of Westpac’s retail and business banking business, CBA said in a statement.

His appointment is also subject to regulatory approvals, including any applicable APRA registration requirements, CBA said.

Mr Morgan is currently CBA’s chief financial officer for wealth management. Prior to this, he was CFO for the business and private bank and Bankwest at CBA, and has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services and property sectors, including at Lend Lease Corporation, National Australia Bank, Radian and Perpetual.

CBA chief executive Matt Comyn said the appointments, effective 1 December 2018, will help drive NeweCo’s strategy and future potential.

“The appointments bring an important mix of external and internal experience, as well as a deep understanding of wealth management and financial services, to lead the new entity,” Mr Comyn said.

“Jason is an accomplished leader, with deep wealth management and broad financial services experience. He is well positioned to lead NewCo and will be strongly supported by Andrew.”

The appointments follow CBA’s commitment in June to demerge its wealth management and mortgage broking businesses, which includes Colonial First State, Count Financial, Financial Wisdom, Aussie Home Loans and CBA’s minority shareholdings in ASX-listed companies CountPlus and Mortgage Choice.

CBA said the demerger of NewCo is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals under a scheme of arrangement and, if approved, is expected to complete in late calendar year 2019.

Further, CBA said Colonial First State Global Asset Management (CFSGAM) will no longer form part of NewCo, following today’s announcement of an agreement to sell CFSGAM to Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation.

As a result of the agreement to sell CFSGAM, the candidate non-executive directors that had been identified for NewCo will no longer continue in their positions.

“I thank John Mulcahy and the other candidate directors for their contributions during this time. Under John’s leadership, they have played an important role in achieving the successful sale outcome for CFSGAM,” Mr Comyn said.

“A new board for NewCo will be established in advance of the proposed demerger.”

Adrian Flores

Adrian Flores is a deputy editor at Momentum Media, focusing mainly on banking, wealth management and financial services. He has also written for Public Accountant, Accountants Daily and The CEO Magazine.

You can contact him on [email protected].