Briefs: NAB plans DIY and cuts planners, Springvale arson prompts FSU moves, Resimac gets CEOs and m
NAB Financial Planning will cut 55 entry-level advisers, reducing its number of entry-level adviser roles from 90 to 35. Self-employment for planners will be encouraged by NAB Wealth, the Financial Standard reported. Commonwealth Bank will only meet the Finance Sector Union this week to share a report and views on the Springvale branch arson incident two Fridays ago. The union, in a bulletin to members, said it was "concerned at suspected under-reporting of aggressive customer incidents." Resimac managing director Warren McLeland has decided not to take up an executive role with the merged Resimac and Homeloans group. The companies announced their merger in July and shareholders approved it last month. McLeland was to lead the merged group but will now serve as a non-executive director. Scott McWilliam and Mary Ploughman have been appointed joint chief executive officers. Westpac's online banking services were subject to intermittent failure over three days last week, affecting transactions, balance inquiries and mobile services. Westpac confirmed to itnews that it was having problems, which it put down to "an unexpected system outage." The bank promised to reimburse any late or overdrawn fees incurred as a result of technical problems. Customers were told payments would be processed but may not be reflected in account balances immediately. "We ask you please don't re-enter payments as it may duplicate them," it posted. On Thursday at Bank Australia's AGM, members voted in favour of changing the corporate name (bankmecu) to the trading name, Bank Australia. Also last week, on Tuesday, the members of Intech Credit Union voted in support of a merger with Bank Australia at their AGM. Bank Australia's board followed up with a resolution to confirm the merger. Intech Credit Union, which has assets of around A$330 million, serves some 10,000 customers working in the technology sector and has several branches in Sydney and Melbourne. The merger will establish Intech Bank as a division of Bank Australia. The formal merger of Bank Australia and Intech Credit Union will be effective 1 January 2017, subject to regulatory approval by APRA. The board of the Financial Ombudsman Service has appointed Johanna Turner as an industry director. Turner has held management positions at Citigroup and Citibank, where she was chief compliance officer and chief risk officer. She was a senior lawyer in the policy branch of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in the 1990s.