ANZ set to launch major MDA push

The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) has succeeded in having its Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence amended to allow it to provide custody services to managed discretionary accounts (MDA).

The big financial institution is about to leverage the licence change to mount a major push into the MDA, individually managed accounts (IMA) and self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) arena.

ANZ’s head of sales and business development Angelo Calvitto confirmed the licence change and said it would effectively allow the bank to provide its wholesale custody arrangements in the retail arena.

He stressed that ANZ’s relationship in the process would be with the MDA provider, but benefits would flow to advisers and their clients through the provision of affordable access to custodial and administration services provided by a major banking institution.

“It effectively gives financial advisers an option,” Calvitto said.

“A client who is in a unit trust and wants to hold direct shares will be able to consider a MDA in the knowledge that the cost is virtually the same,” he said.

Calvitto said that one of the drivers for ANZ seeking the change to its AFS licence had been the rapid growth in the number of IMAs and SMSFs in Australia.

He said ANZ was able to offer its services in the retail arena at wholesale rates because it represented an almost entirely electronic process between the bank and the MDA provider.