CBA ready to close Open Advice Review program
Promontory Financial Group has released its seventh and final report on the Commonwealth Bank's Open Advice Review program. "The report confirms that the program is reaching its final stages. Reviews were completed and issued to customers early this year and the vast majority of cases - around 90 per cent - have now been finalised," Commonwealth Bank executive general manager, Leif Gamertsfelder said. The report shows that there are 936 cases (10.8 per cent) in the program that have yet to be completely resolved or finalisedIn 2014 Commonwealth Bank set up the review of the Commonwealth Financial Planning and Financial Wisdom businesses, in conjunction with an advertising campaign and a mail-out to around 350,000 households. Almost 22,800 customers expressed interest in the program, but did not register or request an assessment. The numbers from Promontory show, more than half of those who expressed an initial interest did not register, or abandoned the process. That left around 10,110 customers requesting a review of the financial advice given to them between 1 September 2003 and 1 July 2012.Of these, assessment outcomes have been issued to 8,564 customers, and approximately $29 million has been offered or paid to date, split amongst 2,186 cases, where the Bank found poor or incorrectly implemented advice that was provided to customers, resulting in financial loss, or fees were overcharged.There are more than 1100 cases which had not been finalised by the cut-off dates cited in the report."The Bank has indicated it expects the vast majority of these cases to be closed by the end of 2017," stated Promontory.