The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) plans to shut down its financial planning research unit because it cannot retain and attract the staff to run it.
The dealership research team has disbanded and its main functions will be awarded to an external ratings agency.
The unit’s four researchers have resigned or are looking for other jobs within the bank, including head of research Patrick Bennett who left last week.
Senior research assistant Aaron Lee is also no longer with the unit but is pursuing other opportunities within the bank, a spokeswoman said.
The resignations of the two remaining researchers, Brad Partridge and Bill Satcas are unrelated to the review of the business, the spokeswoman said.
Partridge resigned in June while Satcas resigned in early August.
The business unit is responsible for conducting core research on managers for the approved product lists (APL) of the bank’s two dealer groups, Commonwealth Financial Planning and Financial Wisdom.
Morningstar, Standard & Poor’s and Van Eyk are the main providers of research to the dealership unit and are understood to be among those tendering for the contract.
An internal review of the business is about to conclude and an announcement will be made in the next few weeks, Commonwealth Financial Planning general manager Tim Gunning said.
Gunning said pressure on retaining and attracting staff to the team was becoming difficult at the same time as the number of financial planners continued to increase.
“We had the choice to add people or to outsource it,” Gunning said.
A coordinator of the APL at a less senior level than Bennett is going to be hired so that function can continue.
“We have plans to continue to grow our adviser numbers,” he said.
Earlier this year National Australia Bank’s wealth management arm MLC scaled back its in-house research function, ThreeSixty and awarded Lonsec the contract.
