Banking royal commission: million-dollar windfall for CBA star witness Marianne Perkovic

The woman who ran the CBA wealth management arm that charged fees to the dead has received a million-dollar windfall.

Marianne Perkovic.

Marianne Perkovic, the CBA’s former head of a wealth management arm that charged fees to the dead, received a million-dollar windfall when the bank bought the financial planning business where she was previously boss.

The sale of now scandal-­ridden Count Financial to CBA in 2011 — 18 months after Ms Perkovic joined the bank — allowed its former boss to make $1 million on Count shares she retained and then resume her role as boss of the financial planner with the CBA.

CBA’s star witness last month at the financial services royal commission was formerly head of the bank’s financial planning business and is now the head of the millionaire’s bank Commonwealth Private. Ms Perkovic was asked to explain to the royal commission why CBA’s Count Financial collected money from thousands of people who had no financial planner, received no service and, in some instances, were dead. Count drew on a network of accountants to provide financial advice, but has been exposed as being rife with malpractice after consumer complaints and has been a major target of the royal commission.

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Michael Hodge QC, accused Ms Perkovic of dissembling in her evidence to cover up the fact it took Australia’s biggest bank two years to tell the corporate regulator it was ripping off customers by charging them fees for services they did not receive. Ms Perkovic was the chief executive of Count Financial from 2006 and joined the CBA at the beginning of 2010 to become general manager of distribution at ­Colonial First State, owned by CBA.

In August 2011, CBA bought Count Financial for $373m, offering $1.40 in cash for Count shares or $1.40 worth of CBA shares. The offer represented a premium of 52.2 per cent on the adjusted closing price and was 14.6 times the company’s 2011 net profit.

At that time, Ms Perkovic and her partner were listed as owning 780,432 shares, which were worth $1.09 million at the time of the sale.

They were listed as the 16th top shareholders in Count Fin­ancial at the time of the sale to CBA and while Ms Perkovic was employed at CBA.

Following the sale, Ms Perkovic was made head of CBA’s fin­ancial planning arm, Wealth Management Advice, which ­included Count Financial.

In a statement to Sky News Business/The Australian, CBA said Ms Perkovic was not aware of the sale before leaving Count, and when she became aware of the sale to CBA she “declared a conflict of interest” and was not involved in the sale.

“Ms Perkovic’s shareholding in Count and potential conflict of interest was known at the time, was fully disclosed at the appropriate stages and comprehensively managed under the group’s policies that govern such matters,” the CBA said.