ANZ to mine customer base

ANZFINANCIALPlanning is attempting to fully ‘tap’ the cross-selling opportunities of the group’s broader client base, specifically focusing on its retail banking, corporate and small to medium enterprise divisions, after acknowledging it lags behind other major banks.

“It’s fair to say that ANZ has not really tapped the opportunities in the marketplace as well as some of the other major banks in terms of its planning business,” newly appointed ANZ Financial Planning head Mike Goodall says.

According to Goodall, one of the biggest opportunities for the bank’s planning arm is to raise the bar of its service model.

“If you look at ANZ, the penetration of its own client base in terms of cross-selling from a wealth management perspective doesn’t match that of other banks.

“One accusation that has been levelled at the bank’s distribution channels is that the group has been good at hunting, but not farming, its existing client base,” he adds.

The accusation to which he refers is one that is often levelled at banks by non-aligned advisers, he says.

However, according to Goodall, non-aligned advisers have long believed if banks are able to get their act together then they will present a major problem for the ongoing success of independent adviser businesses.

“It’s only a matter of time for them to get that right and there’s certainly a huge allocation of resources going into the area to try and get it right,” he says.

Goodall also indicates the group’s fee-for-service pilot scheme has been warmly received by the approximately 30 advisers involved in the initiative.