BIS introduces sweeping remuneration review scheme

BendigoInvestment Services(BIS), the financial planning arm of Bendigo Bank, has made unprecedented changes to its adviser remuneration structure to take into account non-financial factors such as community impact and customer satisfaction levels.

In an industry first, the group’s planners will be assessed not only in terms of revenue generation but also in terms of contributions to the community, customer service, business processes, and personal and professional development.

Group advisory services general manager Bruce Anderson says the group has made the move as it feels adviser remuneration should not be solely dependent on them generating revenue.

“This only weakens the public’s confidence in the industry. Bendigo wishes to take a lead in this area and we have introduced a new bonus structure for BIS advisers which drastically reduces the weighting towards revenue generation,” Anderson says.

The restructure will see the financial performance weighting of advisers reduced to 25 per cent of overall performance with advisers not receiving any bonus unless they meet acceptable standards for each individual criteria, Anderson says.

“We wanted the whole remuneration structure to reflect the bank’s values. One of the biggest complaints of bank planners is that they sell you a product and are then hard to contact. We have made it so that our advisers have to formally review a set number of customers each month and make themselves readily available to customers,” he says.

In the area of community involvement, Anderson gives the example of the bank’s program of assisting local businesses to access lower telephone costs through various community ‘telco’ schemes, with advisers having a role in signing other businesses up to such schemes.

The group has 35 planners nationwide servicing the customers of its 264 community and Bendigo Bank branches. However, these numbers are set to rise, according to Anderson, with the group aiming to open a further 30 branches by the end of the calendar year.

“We have a demand driven model and will look to take on more planners as we expand our branch numbers,” he says.

BIS was formed in 2000 as a joint venture withIOOF, the latter being bought out by Bendigo in mid-2002.