Inside Money: ANZ has fewer answers for third-parties

ANZ is ditching its OnePath brand, after picking it up in 2010 to takeover as the name for its wealth management unit.

What's in a name?

Over a million dollars I haphazardly guessed just three years ago when ANZ revealed 'OnePath' as the replacement brand for its wealth management unit, formerly known as ING.

At the time Joyce Phillips ANZ group managing director strategy, marketing and innovation (a position now rebranded as 'CEO Global Wealth'), described OnePath as a "contemporary, positive brand".

But that was so 2010. OnePath, as ANZ announced in a low-key manner on September 11, has terminated (except in the parallel universe of third-party adviser-distributed life insurance).

Until the final shape of the default KiwiSaver regime is known ANZ's default scheme will probably retain the OnePath name.

However, ANZ has taken the opportunity to cut back another of the long-standing investment brands the bank inherited when it took over ING in 2009 (after first JVing with the business in 2002).

As of September 20, the SIL KiwiSaver scheme took on the OneAnswer name, a brand ANZ already uses for its investment platform business and range of other funds. SIL, or Superannuation Investments Ltd as it was known when established in 1959, will continue to be stamped on a couple of the group's superannuation products.

In its KiwiSaver guise, the SIL brand was pitched at external financial advisers, where ING NZ had considerable loyalty, but growth for ANZ in that market appears to have stalled.

While the SIL scheme, now OneAnswer, is in the top 10 by member numbers and funds under management, its membership has been relatively static over the last three years. Over the same period the ANZ bank KiwiSaver schemes (now down to one with the demise of the National Bank) have grown exponentially.

Indeed, several industry insiders have observed that the success of ANZ's internal KiwiSaver distribution has significantly reduced its reliance on third-party advisers, which probably explains the gradual 'bankification' of the external brands.