Banks still paying millions to dealer groups
Australia’s major banks have confirmed that millions of dollars a year are still flowing to financial planning dealer groups to support the banks’ products in the market.
A series of answers provided to the Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) on Corporations and Financial Services review of Life Insurance has confirmed the degree to which payments continued to be made in the interests of educating advisers.
The ANZ Banking Group confirmed to the committee that it paid $2.7 million to external dealer groups last financial year with the payments “used for education and training of their financial planners”.
Similarly Westpac’s insurance arm, Westpac Life Insurance Services Limited was confirmed as making “payments to certain adviser dealer‐groups for the purpose of adviser education and training, including for changes to products”.
However, in explaining its approach, Westpac said the Life Insurance Framework (LIF) reforms, commencing 1 January, next year, “will ensure these payments are quarantined for this purpose”.
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