Joyce Philllips

ANZ yesterday announced the formalisation of its strategic alliance with leading Swiss private bank, Vontobel, with the signing of a Co-operation Agreement that will enable ANZ to offer its private clients a distinct proposition through exposure to Vontobel’s differentiated investment and product expertise.

Set for an initial period of five years, the alliance with Vontobel will provide ANZ’s clients with access to sophisticated investment solutions. Additionally, Vontobel will act as an advisor to ANZ’s Global Wealth business in the areas of global asset allocation and equity investing.

ANZ Global Wealth CEO Joyce Phillips said: “Through our alliance with Vontobel we will provide our clients across the Asia Pacific region with world-class investment and asset allocation solutions, which includes expertise and capability in global asset allocation, equity investing, and sophisticated client advisory services.”

Vontobel CEO Zeno Staub added: “This alliance with ANZ positions our company as an active wealth and asset manager with a high level of investment and product expertise in a region that is experiencing very dynamic growth.”

Full capabilities are expected to be made available to clients in 2014. In the interim, ANZ and Vontobel will focus on implementing services and training staff in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

The ANZ-Vontobel Co-operation Agreement follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ANZ and Vontobel in late 2012.

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64 Media’s Julie Bennett and Pritchitt Partners’ Claudia Pritchitt

64 Media and Pritchitt Partners, two specialist communications firms in the financial services industry, have formed a strategic alliance to add further value to their client services.

The strategic alliance, The Value Alliance, will give both consultancies the ability to provide clients additional back-up, expand communication opportunities for them, offer additional specialist services and add synergy in areas such as crisis communication.  Each business will continue to operate separately, but The Value Alliance will allow joint approaches to client work in some areas, especially in new business development.

Both principals of the individual consultancies, Claudia Pritchitt (Pritchitt Partners) and Julie Bennett (64 Media), are highly regarded in financial services media relations.

While the expertise of the consultancies is very similar, each has some additional specialised services. Their clients include fund managers, financial planners, other financial services providers, mutual organisations, industry associations and professional firms.

The principals have already worked together over several years, but have formalised a joint arrangement to strengthen their relationship so as to provide additional client benefits.

As an example Ms Pritchitt points to the media training that 64 Media provides, using its specialist knowledge of financial services industry issues, opportunities and activities, as being useful for Pritchitt Partners clients. 

“Most media training is provided by generalists and focuses on handling foot-in-the-door journalists when an organisation has a problem,” Ms Pritchitt said.

“In media training, our clients need a trainer who understands their business and is capable of developing realistic scenarios that teach them how to take best advantage of the media opportunities we routinely create, so that they are better equipped to get across the points they wish to make.

“After clients have been given this knowledge, and used it in their ongoing media relations, they can then be prepared for any media crisis when required – and in the unlikely event it ever becomes necessary,” Ms Pritchitt said.

Ms Bennett added that having the opportunity for informal reviews and knowledge exchange will also add opportunities to overall client programs for each business.

“64 Media clients will also benefit from the new relationship in other ways,” she said.

“For example, Pritchitt Partners has developed a unique event approach that is included as an added benefit to client relations and which can be extended to include 64 Media clients.

“Claudia and I have been friends for a long time and provided each other with back-up and support in the past.  So it is exciting for us to formalise and extend this business relationship,” Ms Bennett said.

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From October this year, AMP Flexible Lifetime Protection will be rolled out to Bendigo Bank’s 460
branches.

AMP Director Product Manufacturing Paul Sainsbury said the alliance with Bendigo Bank gives
AMP an opportunity to build a strategic relationship with a highly regarded financial services
institution and broaden its distribution reach to Australians needing quality wealth solutions.

“AMP aims to develop new channels that give more Australians greater access to financial advice
and important products such as life insurance,” Mr Sainsbury said.

“AMP’s alliance with Bendigo Bank demonstrates our commitment to achieving this aim and our
capability to provide our partners with the necessary support, training and development for their
financial planners and other advice providers.

“We were able to innovatively tailor a life insurance solution and provide support services that
suited the needs of the Bendigo Bank network and ultimately its customers,” Mr Sainsbury said.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Executive Retail Dennis Bice said Bendigo Bank wanted to partner
with a strong brand with proven experience in the life insurance space as well as an established
and supportive service model.

“The bank recently launched its transition to advice program, an investment which will allow us to
have more meaningful conversations with our customers and ultimately drive better outcomes for
them,” Mr Bice said.

AMP has developed an ongoing training and support program tailored for both the bank’s
experienced financial planners and new personal advisers.

“The training and support that AMP offers was a vital part of their offering to help us successfully
achieve this transition and our alliance with AMP enhances the bank’s wealth management
offering,” Mr Bice added.

Initially, more than 60 of Bendigo Bank’s 460 branches will have staff trained to provide limited
personal advice on Tier One products including insurance, superannuation and managed funds.

“However, it’s the bank’s aim to have an accredited representative in every branch to enhance the
range of advice solutions available to our customers,” Mr Bice concluded.

AMP’s Flexible Lifetime Protection Trauma Cover Optimum recently won Trauma Product of the
Year at the 2010 AFR Smart Investor Blue Ribbon Awards.

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