“I’m not naive. We’ve got challenges. I know we’ve got opportunities. I want to be part of that team that restores faith and trust in this organisation.”
Challenges is somewhat of a euphemism. AMP shares are trading 80 per cent lower than before the Hayne royal commission, which levelled allegations of criminal misconduct against the wealth manager.
‘Harassment not acceptable’
Staff and shareholder furore over the board’s handling of sexual harassment complaints – after the Financial Review revealed AMP promoted Boe Pahari to chief executive of its crown-jewel funds management arm despite settling such a claim against him in 2017 – further hindered predecessor Francesco De Ferrari’s efforts to turn around the 172-year-old company’s fortunes.
Asked if she would have promoted Mr Pahari, Ms George said: “I wasn’t there [and] I don’t know a lot about the detail.”
But she acknowledged the company’s cultural problems, saying she had zero tolerance for bullying and harassment, adding that one of her major strengths was her ability to engage with people.
“Harassment is just not acceptable in the workforce in any shape or form,” Ms George said, adding that she was working hard to make herself available to staff, shareholders and the community.
“I think the second thing I said to staff on the very first day in the organisation was that I had six priorities. One of them was absolutely about continuing the cultural transformation that they began before I started.
“I think it’s really important for me to focus on the future, make sure that I know I’ve got the processes and systems in place to make sure this doesn’t happen.”
All AMP executives, including Ms George, have completed “inclusion” training, which is now being rolled out as mandatory for all employees.
Ms George also broke with her predecessors, backing the withdrawal of the major banks from superannuation and financial advice and opening up for the first time about the sale of ANZ Wealth.
The former deputy CEO of ANZ Banking Group and group executive of the lenders’ wealth arm said selling the superannuation and financial advice business to IOOF was “the right decision at the time and still the right decision”.
Ms George said bank-owned wealth managers had struggled to get the sufficient “attention and investment” required to develop quality products and provide advice to customers.
However, she added that announcing that wealth market exit to ANZ staff was difficult.
“Wealth goes to the core of my being, so to sit in front of our people and say that we’re selling a business was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life,” she said.
Platform priority
Mr De Ferrari and former AMP Australia boss Alex Wade, who abruptly departed AMP last year after allegedly sending lewd photos to a colleague, had been critical of the banks’ decision to abandon the market, with Mr Wade telling the Financial Review in January last year it was “sad they’re leaving”.
The highly respected new-broom CEO said she would focus on expanding the wealth group’s platforms (administrative technology used by financial advisers to manage assets on behalf of clients) and banking businesses, while ensuring it remained competitive in superannuation.
She did not rule out acquisitions of other platforms, recognising that it was a business that benefited from scale.
“The platforms businesses is really important. They have a really good proposition at the moment. We really do need to continue to grow that. And I don’t see any reason why we can’t,” Ms George told delegates at the Summit.
She would not rule out the prospect of AMP bidding for Westpac’s BT Panorama platform, which is one of several wealth management assets “under review” by Australia’s oldest bank.
”You want to understand what discussions are going on to be able to make decisions,” Ms George said.
She said AMP Bank had great potential, particularly given it was a digital operation. She would be looking to partner with fintechs.
The four major banks have, to varying extents, returned to core functions of lending and deposit-taking.
