Is Halloween looming ominous for AMP?
Market analysts have begun referring to a so-called ‘Halloween deadline’ for unprofitable AMP planners to leave the company.
The latest reference has come from stockbroking analysts at Bell Potter in reference to AMP’s release of its September quarterly inflows update released to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) last week.
It said that AMP had played a straight bat with respect to the inflows data but had provided no commentary regarding the key issues that Bell Potter saw the business facing.
The analysis said the “reality is AMP is in the midst of its biggest cull of advisers ever, with the so-called Halloween deadline less than a week away”.
It said the Halloween deadline referred to the date AMP had set for its unprofitable advisers to exit the organisation.
“In addition, it defies logic that AMP hasn't provided an update or any commentary on its remediation program, particularly given three of the four major banks have significantly increased the respective program costs in the last few weeks,” the analysis said.
Bell Potter calculated that AMP had set aside only a fifth of what the major banks had done, when calculated on a per adviser basis.
The analysis also pointed to concerns around the ultimate cost of buyer of last resort (BOLR) arrangements.
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