Financial planning shines for CBA

The financial planning arm of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia was one of the outstanding performers contributing to this week’s bumper profit announcement, with a 54 per cent jump in revenue in the second half of 2004 compared to the same period in 2003.

CBA executive general manager financial planning and advice services Brett Himbury said strong support from the bank had helped the division to outstrip the targets put in place at the beginning of 2004, with the bank’s network planners recording a 45 per cent in increase in productivity in terms of revenue sales per planner.

Himbury did not reveal any specific figures in terms of how much revenue the average adviser brought in or how much money the planning and advice services division had delivered but did say that the “bank was pleased with the performance”.

“We’re growing both the Financial Wisdom and networked businesses in addition to Enterprise 121 beginning to take off,” he added.

Himbury said he “would be surprised if other groups in the industry were getting the same amount of productivity” out of their advisers.

“Clearly we have the support of the bank and they’re fully behind wealth management, so it means we’re getting much more referrals,” he said.

“We’ve also invested heavily in a structured ongoing service package to customers and that has been taken up by thousands of customers and built a new revenue stream.”

The CBA posted a half yearly net profit after tax of $1.76 billion on Wednesday, a 42 per cent jump on the corresponding period for December 2003.

The result saw the bank’s share price rise $1.33 for the day - its eighth highest one-day rise since it listed in 1991.

Net profit after tax in the group’s banking division was up 10 per cent to $1.43 billion for the six months ending December 2004 compared to the second half of 2003.