HBOS-owned BankWest is looking to recruit at least 160 financial advisers in an aggressive expansion into the eastern states.
The Perth-based bank announced on Thursday that it will open more than 125 retail and 35 commercial branches in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia over the next three to four years.
Advisers will be hired to operate under the banner of St Andrew’s Australia, the wealth and insurance arm of HBOS.
The rapid expansion of the business and lucrative offers should attract advisers, St Andrews managing director John Van Der Wielen said.
“We are starting to recruit financial planners in Melbourne and Sydney to work within our branch network,” Van Der Wielen said.
“We’ll put a planner in each branch as they open up,” he said.
Each BankWest branch will employ one planner who will use a centralised paraplanning service.
Planners with experience in dealing with high-net worth clients will be hired to work out of the bank’s business branches in Sydney and Melbourne.
BankWest said the move is the largest banking network rollout ever undertaken in Australia from scratch and is designed as an assault on the market share of the big four banks – National Australian Bank, Westpac, ANZ and the Commonwealth Bank.
In January St Andrew’s bought Queensland practice Whittaker Macnaught to build up the group’s advice network prior to the banking expansion.
“The insurance and investment line has really expanded at the same time as the retail banking line,” Van Der Wielen said.
“In general we would like to increase [St Andrew’s] staff by a couple of hundred.
“It’s a major development for St Andrew’s. We’ve got 60 planners around Australia but this obviously speeds up the expansion.”
