CBA exits aligned advice amid profit decline
The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has reaffirmed the continuing divestment of aligned advice business including the closure of Financial Wisdom by June, next year, at the same time as announcing an eight per cent decline in full-year net profit after tax to $8,571 million.
Commonwealth Bank chief executive, Matt Comyn, reinforced the big banking groups continuing divestments which have included the sale of Count Financial and Colonial First State Global Asset Management and then referenced its commitment to exit from aligned advice.
Comyn also emphasised that the Commonwealth Bank’s divestment of CommInsure to AIA Australia, which began in 2017, was still in progress and that the two groups remained “fully committed” to completing the transaction.
The CBA announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) said the transaction was well-progressed but that the two companies were also exploring an alternative path to complete the CommInsure life transaction prior to the transfer of the Group’s stake in BoComm Life.
Comyn said he believed the banking group had made progress in its strategy to become a simpler, better bank but acknowledged that the headline results had been impacted by customer remediation costs, revenue foregone for the benefit of customers and elevated risk and compliance expenses.
“The progress we are making on divestments further strengthens our capital position,” he said.
The company declared a flat full year dividend of $4.31 per share.
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