Insignia successfully completes separation of ANZ P&I business

Insignia Financial has now successfully completed the separation of the pension and investments (P&I) business from ANZ following a multi-year program of work.

The firm said that the completion is a significant milestone in its separation and simplification programs, while also representing an industry milestone as the first time an organisation has completed the separation of a superannuation business from one of the big four banks.

“This is a momentous achievement for our organisation and the industry as major banks exit from wealth management to simplify their businesses,” said Insignia chief transformation officer, Chris Weldon.

“We’re thrilled to have successfully completed the P&I cutover and separation, and to have done so within our planned timelines.”

According to Insignia, 1,257 employees transitioned from ANZ with 638 commercial licence arrangements separated from ANZ and 589 applications separated or migrated.

Mr Weldon said that unravelling complexities to achieve a clean separation was no small feat.

“All of the systems and people supporting the P&I business and its clients have now transitioned to the Insignia Financial environment, reinforcing Insignia Financial’s ability to execute on strategic initiatives,” he said.

“We now have full control and management of the systems which support the P&I business. This enables us to unlock benefits of scale for our clients and people, aligned to our enterprise priority of simplification.”

In August, Insignia reported that former ANZ-aligned licensees achieved ‘target break-even’ in the second half of the financial year. The firm also reported a 102.8 per cent gross margin increase of $1.48 billion attributed to its acquisition of MLC from NAB last year.

The integration of the MLC Wealth business into Insignia, Mr Weldon noted, remains on track.

“We are applying the learnings from the separation of the P&I business, as well as pivoting the people who contributed to its success, to the separation of the MLC Wealth business from NAB,” he said.

“Delivering on this complex program will be another step towards realising our ambition to create financial wellbeing for all Australians.”

Jon Bragg

Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.