Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has created a new wealth management business unit: Bendigo Wealth.
The new business unit will sit in the banking and wealth division and is led by former IOOF portfolio solutions general manager John Billington, who joined the bank in September last year.
"Bendigo Wealth as a brand will make it easier for our highly valued distribution artners to explain the product range to clients - and for clients to more easily make the connection to a financial services brand that they both recognise and rust," Bendigo Wealth executive John Billington said.
"We also want to make it easier for financial advisers to not only be able to see the full range of investment solutions we offer, but to make it easier for them when they are having conversations with their clients about our products. The dots are easier to join for all parties and investing with the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank group is now an easier story for advisers to tell," he said.
The bank will promote the Bendigo Wealth by continuing to open more branches, training more staff, recruiting more financial advisers and growing our distribution networks.
The bank has currently about 70 financial planners and 50 customer facing staff who are qualified to provide financial advice, and $4 billion in funds under management.
Bendigo said it will keep the existing sub-brands, Leveraged Equities, Adelaide Bank Wealth Deposits, Sandhurst Trustees, Victorian Securities, Bendigo Financial Planning and Insurance, and their product ranges.
"Our distribution partners told us that they would appreciate the greater convenience of new bundling options and a similar look and feel across our product range. These conversations have been very valuable in setting the direction of our wealth business and we will now bring these findings to life," Bendigo managing director Mike Hirst said.
"The realignment and expansion of our wealth management operations will see us pursue opportunities that will position the group to manage a greater share of the growing Australian managed investment pool, along with life, risk and general insurance that our distribution partners may have overlooked when dealing with one part of our wealth offering," Hirst said
Bendigo is still involved in a legal stoush with clients of Great Southern over loan repayments relating to plantation investment schemes.
Some of the loans issued by Great Southern Finance that allowed investors to invest in the product were bought by Bendigo, but a number of investors have refused to pay back the loans after the collapse of the investment schemes.
The bank has an exposure of about $550 million to borrowers in Great Southern managed investment schemes.
But Billington did not think this would affect the growth of the wealth division. "I don't see it having any impact on what we are doing," he said.
