CBA ups CountPlus indemnity by $220 million

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has raised its remediation provision regarding the sale of its financial planning arm, Count Financial Limited, to CountPlus Limited in 2019 by $220 million.

In an announcement made to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) this morning, the bank said its limit of indemnity provided to CountPlus “to cover remediation of past conduct” has been increased from $300 million to $520 million.

The statement comes as approximations of continuing service fee customer remediation payments were reviewed to reflect actual case assessments and valuations that have been conducted as part of the fees for no service remediation program.

These payments have been recognised as a post-tax adjustment of $147 million to the Count divestment in the first half of the 2023 financial year.

CountPlus also made an announcement to the ASX confirming the increase.

“As foreshadowed by CUP on 26 August 2022 at the Full Year Results and again on 15 November 2022 at the Annual General Meeting, CUP expect CBA to substantively complete client assessments by 31 December 2022,” the announcement said.

“CBA have provided revised information to CUP for the Count Financial Limited (Count Financial) fees for no service remediation program.”