Decisions coming for Commonwealth Bank’s NewCo wealth business and Jason Yetton

Jason Yetton has no immediate plans to leave NewCo, Commonwealth Bank says. Picture: Hollie Adams

When Commonwealth Bank scrapped its plan for its “NewCo” wealth spin-off last March, attention predictably turned to the future of Jason Yetton and his management team, which CBA had assembled in anticipation of a multi-billion dollar public listing.

Yetton, the former senior Westpac executive and ex-chief executive of marketplace lender SocietyOne, lost his chief financial officer Andrew Morgan to rival operator MLC Wealth in mid-September.

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Since then, there’s been a lot of water-cooler discussion about Yetton’s next move.

The official line at Commonwealth Bank is that Yetton isn’t going anywhere, at least for now.

“As CEO of NewCo, Jason is focusing on the significant work that is being done across all of those businesses to deliver the complex remediation programs which are a key part of our commitment to become a simpler, better bank for our customers,” a spokesman said.

For all its faults and justified reputation as ground zero for much of CBA’s misconduct, NewCo is not just a wealth-customer remediation machine.

The spin-off was effectively killed with the $4.1 billion sale of Colonial First State Global Asset Management in October 2018 to Mitsubishi UFJ, which halved the size of the demerger.

NewCo, however, still has Colonial First State — a superannuation and investment platform with more than $135bn in assets under management — and stakes in third-party distribution businesses, including Aussie Home Loans and Mortgage Choice.

The plan remains for NewCo to exit CFS as well as the aligned advice brands Count Financial, Financial Wisdom and Commonwealth Financial Planning Pathways.

The sale of Count Financial to CountPlus was completed earlier this month, and CBA will proceed with an assisted closure of Financial Wisdom, which is likely to conclude around the middle of next year.

CFP-Pathways advisers can transition to self-licensing arrangements or move to another licensee.

As for remediation, who knows when the curtain will be drawn, and the same applies to Yetton.

While speculation that he’s already got one foot out the door is wide of the mark, he’s unlikely to stay around to write remediation cheques.

Decision time is likely to be around the end of the year, or soon after.