Professional Investment Services (PIS) has cut close to 300 financial adviser and staff positions in the last 12 to 18 months as part of the group's push for stronger compliance measures, according to the group's managing director.
Grahame Evans said the dealer group, now owned by financial services firm Centrepoint Alliance, reduced headcounts of about "250 to 300" across its network, the majority of this figure made up of advisers.
"It's [adviser reduction] fairly significant, it's the size of some dealer groups," Evans said.
He said the decision was based around a number of key issues including whether or not select advisers within its network were committed to the group.
He said the company had discussions with advisers over fees to cover the cost of PIS increasing its compliance measures, with some advisers deciding to exit rather than pay their fee.
"We've also gotten rid of a number of people who were not wanting to play their compliance game, which I think is important," he said.
"We've also just reduced down people who might have been in an accountancy practice, an accountant who was attached to one of our advisers who felt they needed a licence and they really didn't so we let a few of those go as well.
"It's no longer about how big you can get. It's actually about how effective you can be."
Evans said the group's current adviser number of around 900 is where the group intends to stay.
"The number we want is probably were we are which is about circa 900 but we want to keep improving that quality and working with our advisers to be more effective and be able to work in a new world," he said.
"And in some instances, some of those people who we had before just weren't going to work in that environment."
