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CBA eyes 2020 closure for Financial Wisdom business

Commonwealth Bank of Australia will cease providing licensee services through its Financial Wisdom Ltd business by June 2020 as it continues to exit from its aligned advice businesses.

In an update following the release of its full-year earnings report, the bank said it will begin the assisted closure of Financial Wisdom and will assist advisers in finding alternative arrangements such as self-licensing or joining another financial advice company.

It will also provide similar arrangements for advisers at Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited-Pathways, or CFP-Pathways.

CBA expects its exit from the two businesses to result in a pretax cost of about A$26 million. The bank said it incurred posttax losses of about A$11 million in the fiscal year ended June from Financial Wisdom and CFP-Pathways.

In addition, the bank said its plan to sell Count Financial Ltd. to Countplus Ltd. is on track to close in October. Following the closure of the deal, CBA will sell its 35.9% stake in CountPlus subject to market conditions.

The bank recently completed the sale of its global asset management business, Colonial First State Asset Management (Australia) Ltd.