Commonwealth Bank confirms that additional licence conditions have been imposed by Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) on the superannuation licence held by Avanteos Investments Limited (AIL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank.
The additional conditions relate to the identification and implementation of further improvements required to governance or internal controls to comprehensively address the issues that led AIL to deduct adviser service fees after notification of the member’s death.
AIL apologises unreservedly to the families of deceased members. AIL is committed to acting in the best interests of members and agrees with the purpose of the licence conditions. AIL will fully cooperate with APRA regarding the licence conditions.
Since reporting a breach to APRA and ASIC in May 2018, AIL has taken action to ensure that adviser service fees charged in error are refunded as quickly as possible, with 95 per cent of refunds paid to date. The remaining 5 per cent of refunds relate to beneficiaries AIL has been unable to locate. AIL has offered or paid refunds of approximately $6 million (including interest). AIL has also made process changes to prevent further deduction of fees after the death of a member.
