CK showed at the royal commission how much he didnt take APRA and potential changes seriously. He was asked about how ARPA questioned their trustee business and he said 'it was a matter of indifference'.... Well not really mate, if the regulator says something is wrong and needs to be fixed, you fix it. A very abhorrent attitude but one that has been formed from most of the industry being able to get away with gouging for years.
For too long everything in this industry has been grandfathered or there's just been a slap on the wrist assuming 'they wont do it again'. Instead the industry keeps doing whatever makes them the most money, and in most cases, that is 'doing it again' which is the worst thing for consumers.
The issue for IOOF here, and what brings me back to my original point when I started posting here, these clear oversights of the issues in their own business model likely extended to the ANZ acquisition. ANZ and the rest of the banks have been running for the hill for a reason, its because operations are continually becoming less and less profitable unless you actually have a market leading product and service. None of the banks of IFL/AMP has a leading service/product, they are reliant on a vertically integrated salesforce for fund flows and product sales which is under serious threat from the RC.
Im a big advocate of getting rid of vertical integration, but taking my bias view out of it, what do you think would be more popular politically? Both parties are going to play populous policy leading into an election and I think the general public is going to want to see the axe swung on vertical integration. The main argument for vertical integration is that is can 'reduce the cost of advice' but it hasn't succeeded in doing this.
IFL Price at posting:
$4.84 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
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