Alex Wade, the chief executive officer of AMP Australia, will step down and leave the business, effective immediately, the company announced yesterday.
He has been in the newly created role for barely a year, after first joining AMP from Credit Suisse in January last year as its head of advice.
Wade, who was head of developed and emerging Asia for Credit Suisse Private Banking, was lured to AMP by its CEO Francesco De Ferrari after 20-year veteran Jack Regan decided to retire in the aftermath of the banking royal commission. Regan had been pummelled over AMP's actions in misleading the corporate regulator on dozens of occasions.
The repercussions for AMP continued when, a month later, the company's wealth executive Paul Sainsbury was squeezed out after AMP's charging of life insurance premiums for dead customers., giving De Ferrari the opportunity to reshuffle and reallocate executive responsibilities.
In a further shakeup, De Ferrari created the Australian wealth management division, comprising AMP's advice, wealth management, product and customer solutions teams. Wade headed this group from 2017.
Blair Vernon, CEO of New Zealand Wealth Management was appointed Acting CEO of AMP Australia while a search process is run to find a permanent replacement. He will start immediately, with Jeff Ruscoe stepping up to replace him as Acting CEO, NZWM.
The change comes at an awkward time for AMP, in the process of what its chief executive Francesco De Ferrari called "reshaping" its advice business, while it recently "separated" its life business.
AMP gave no reasons for Wade's sudden move, although the rumour mills were grinding out talk of an internal incident that had sparked the action.