eFinancialCareers

BankWest is recruiting financial planners, but a shortage of experienced talent in Australia means it may have to hire from its parent – the UK’s HBOS.

A bank spokeswoman confirmed that BankWest is intending to hire around 100 planners over the next three years as the bank “expands aggressively” around Australia.

Reports late last year indicated that BankWest might hire up to half of the required planners from the UK, however the spokeswoman said comments had been taken out of context.

“We will be looking internally and most of the financial planners are likely to be recruited from within Australia,” she said. “We will be doing a little bit of hiring from overseas, including from our parent bank, but within Australia we will be looking at headhunting and getting people to refer.”

Financial planners have never been in more demand in Australia, and recruiters say that trend is showing no signs of abating.

Matt Mullins, national manager of Jonathan Wren, says it is “the toughest recruitment market in history” for the recruitment of financial planners.

He notes that demand for advisers in 2007 was estimated at 3,000, and says “we don’t see the supply side as being anywhere near that number.”

A spokeswoman from the Financial Planners Association of Australia (FPA) said the FPA was unable to comment on any specifics at this stage but that the association was conducting research into the recruitment environment for planners and would release its findings soon in the New Year.