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Professional Investment Holdings (PIH), the parent company of one of the country’s largest non-institutionally owned dealer groups, has confirmed it has partnered with Credit Union Australia (CUA) to distribute banking products.
PIH said the deal would allow it to offer a range of banking products and services that “present a real alternative to the major financial institutions”.
The group is already distributing CUA products through its advisory and accounting network, Professional Investment Services, although this represents a soft launch to “test acceptance of CUA products among the PIH network and their clients”.
PIH and CUA anticipate a more extensive roll-out later this year.
CUA is a customer-owned financial institution, and with more than 400,000 customers promotes itself as the biggest of its kind in the country. PIH chief Robbie Bennetts described PIH and CUA as two companies “offering a real alternative to the big financial institutions that dominate Australian banking and wealth management”.
In recent months Bennetts has regularly spoken out against the banks, despite failing to rule out a potential sale of his network to an institution. That discussion appears to have been taken off the table, with PIH currently in negotiations to become part of listed insurance premium funding company Centrepoint Alliance.
CUA strategy and marketing general manager Andrew Hadley said the groups would “promote competition by providing Australians with greater choice of banking products and services through their PIH accountant or financial adviser”.
“In doing so, we will further diversify the sources of funding for CUA.”
Bennetts has long touted this move into product provision as the way for the group to survive in a world without commissions. The deal is understood to be structured under a joint venture agreement, which means both CUA and PIH share in the profits generated by the product distribution.
