Consumer trust isn’t something to be taken for granted, but reports from the UK, US and here at home are all pointing towards an uplift in trust levels around financial advice, which can only be a welcome development.
There are significant tailwinds behind the financial advice industry at the moment, but some major obstacles are still preventing advice practices from taking advantage of surging demand according to a new study from CFS.
BT Panorama records net inflows ahead of sale
Westpac has added $1.5bn in net inflows for the 1H of the year on its BT Panorama platform while still looking for a buyer. It was somehow able to brush off a major tech outage which received a lot of bad press to win business from financial advisers helping it increase its funds under management (FUM). At its 1H22 result, the platform recorded $105 billion in FUM an increase of 112 per cent on the year.
BT Panorama has always been on the chopping blocks for Westpac since last December. The big banks have all off-loaded their wealth management platforms following the Royal Banking Commission. Westpac CEO Peter King said the bank wants to shift its focus and investment on building its banking experience and capacity, therefore divesting its BT businesses. BT Super will be sold separately from Panorama, and will effectively be written down to zero. The sale is already underway and is managed separately.
Late last year Panorama experienced a major tech outage preventing financial advisers from trading, completing transactions and issuing statements of advice. The platform which cost upwards of $1 billion dollars to develop and was pitched as “future-proof,” had infuriated advisers and clients because of its tech issues.
Westpac hasn’t named a suitor yet, but the names doing the rounds include, Netwealth, KKR-backed Colonial First State, Macquarie and AMP. There may be more parties at the table, but these are some of the ones which are more likely to be interested. The platform could fetch anywhere from A$1.5bn upwards.
Westpac’s BT Panorama was the second largest platform with $155.18bn in ‘total’ funds under management with its managed accounts FUA increasing to $10.9bn up 57 percent from the March Q 2021.
Here is a list of the largest platforms:
