IRESS makes big breakthrough with Commbank

Major financial planning software provider, IRESS has reinforced its market dominance via an agreement with the Commonwealth Bank which will see it rolled out to all the bank's advice divisions.

The Commonwealth Bank Wealth Management Advice business announced today it had agreed with IRESS to extend use of the software beyond Count Financial nd the Commonwealth Bank's Business and Private Bank to all Commonwealth Bank Wealth management licenses including Commownealth Financial Planning, Bankwest Financial Advice and Financial Wisdom.

Confirming the deal today, Commonwealth Bank Wealth management executive general manager, advice, Marianne Perkovic said the objective behind the strategic partnership was to leverage the technology to deliver a simpler and more engaging way to offer advice at a lower cost.

Under the arrangement, the technology solutions that will be provided to WM Advice financial advisers will include the IRESS XPLAN platform and IRESS' new XPLAN Prime solution, with the Commonwealth Bank being the first company to use XPLAN Prime to deliver an integrated scaled advice solution.

According to the announcement, the transition to IRESS technology will take approximately two years to complete and will bring all WM Advice licensees onto the same advice platform, making future development easier and more cost-effective to implement.

It said the agreement with IRESS followed an extensive Request for Proposal (RFP) process which included submissions from a number of leading domestic and international financial planning software vendors.