ING to build flagship platform

The fundsmanagement joint venture between ING and the ANZ Bank, known as ING Australia, is preparing to launch a new master trust platform.

It is understood the new master trust will become the flagship investment platform for the ANZ Bank’s branch based financial planners, as well as for ING’s own financial planning dealer groups.

The new platform will be the first significant product launch for ING Australia since it was formed by ING and ANZ in April.

At the time, both groups announced ambitious plans to treble the flow of funds coming from ANZ distribution channels, such as bank branches, by boosting the sale of new products manufactured by the joint venture.

Both ANZ and ING’s five dealer groups — Partnership Planning, Lynx Financial Services, Austadvisers, Superconcepts and RetireInvest — are expected to badge the new master trust with their own brands.

The launch of the master trust is also expected to coincide with ING’s previously announced plans to rebrand some of its dealer groups.

ING had initially been scheduled to complete the rebranding exercise in April, but pushed the completion of the project back to August or September after the joint venture with ANZ was completed.

ING Australia is expected to roll out the new master trust platform through ING channels in late August, before making the product available through ANZ later in the year.