Advised female clients now outnumber their male counterparts, according to findings from a whitepaper commissioned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA’s) former wholesale broker, the Australian Investment Exchange (AUSIEX).
The ‘Australia’s trading transformation’ whitepaper showed the proportion of female advised clients rose beyond half for the first time since AUSIEX’s trading records began in 1996 to 52.4%, as of March 2021, from 47.3% in November 2019.
Andrew Stewart, AUSIEX head of product and distribution, said from 2019 onwards women had become the majority of their new clients.
“Up until 2018, the majority of new client accounts in the advised (direct) segment were opened by men,” Stewart said.
“From a gender perspective we’ve seen some changes during COVID-19, as of March 2021 the percent of females as total applicants at AUSIEX on the advised side has risen to 52%.
“The number of women acting as the primary account holder has risen to 39% from 33% – and these are stats that are reflected across the broader industry.
“The ASX Australian Investor Study 2020 shows that about 45% of new investors in on-exchange products in the past year were female (up from 31% five to ten years ago), and it is pleasing to see that females are also increasingly driving the advised relationship.”
Stewart said the ratio of female to male clients slipped during lockdown, which might have reflected a more cautious approach to women trading in volatile times.
“The proportion of accounts held by women began to pick up again after the market stabilised and the economic outlook began to improve later in the year,” Stewart said.
AUSIEX was the former wholesale arm of CBA’s brokerage business Commsec, which was now owned by Nomura Research Institute (NRI), and the whitepaper was commissioned as part of the launch.
It provided trading services to over 4,000 financial advisers, 800 dealer groups and five of Australia’s top 10 wealth platforms.
