Westpac restructures commissions

Effective from 1 November, Westpac will no longer pay trailing commission on all new loans that are more than 30 days in arrears.

In addition, the major will align its payment of trail commissions with the industry through the introduction of loan balance netting of offset for the payment of trailing commission.

Finally, Westpac also announced that it would extend its clawback of 50 per cent of the up-front commission for early discharge of a loan from 12-18 months to 12-24 months.

While many in the industry are quick to believe that Westpac has followed St George’s decision to restructure its commissions, a Westpac spokesperson told The Adviser that any speculation on this topic was unfounded.

“Each brand makes independent decisions and has its own dedicated management team, and distribution channel offering differentiated products, different commission structure, pricing and service. As you will note, St George has announced its changes separately from Westpac and their changes are quite different from ours,” the spokesperson said.