ANZ to phase out ‘prime access’ service in wake of fee-for-no-service scandal

ANZ will phase out a priority access service after compensating customers over fees for no service.

An ANZ bank branch. Hollie Adams/The Australian

ANZ plans to phase out its troubled “Prime Access” financial service over the next 18 months, as fallout from the Hayne financial services royal commission continues to be felt through the sector.

New ANZ customers will no longer be offered the financial advice from the service while existing customers will be moved onto other products over the next 18 months.

The “Prime Access” offering has been a troubled initiative for ANZ after it emerged it had charged customers fees but failed to provide services.

“Prime Access” was part of an ANZ wealth package that was designed to give customers priority access to financial planners and a documented annual review.

Following an enforceable undertaking with ASIC last year, ANZ compensated customers nearly $47 million and agreed to pay an additional $3m charge for a community benefit.

An ASIC investigation found that ANZ failed to provide documented annual reviews to more than 10,000 customers and shortcomings with its systems.

ANZ unveiled its plan to improve financial planning about a year ago, which included removing sales incentives for financial planning bonuses, as well as speeding up customer remediation.

“We are determined to keep making improvements to the way we offer customers high quality and accessible advice,” private banking and advice managing director Mike Norfolk said in a statement.

“We know we need to think differently about how we do this, which is why we are taking a new approach to providing our customers ongoing advice and phasing out prime access as part of that.

ANZ said its financial planners will talk to current prime access customers on how the bank’s new advice model could work best for them during their annual review.

“ANZ’s new service will also provide customers with greater choice of regular financial reviews,” the bank said.