Well, good morning, everyone. Let me start by paying my respects to the traditional custodians of the land in which we hold this meeting today, which for me is the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to all elders past and present from the lands on which you join us today. With me here today, of course, is Peter Fredricson, who joined AMP as the new CFO last month. We're delighted to have someone of Peter's caliber and experience on our executive team at a time of importance for AMP's transformation. Peter will talk through our financial performance shortly. I'll then provide an update on our progress against the strategy before we move to questions. Firstly, I'd like to give you an overview of the year and some key highlights.
In November 2021, we presented our strategy, setting us on a path to a new AMP. The results we present today reflect a performance for AMP's transformation. Peter will talk through our financial performance shortly, I'll then provide an update on our progress against the strategy before we move to questions. Firstly, I'd like to give you an overview of the year and some key highlights. In November 2021, we presented our strategy, setting us on a path to a new AMP.
The results we present today reflect a full year of execution against that strategy and the excellent progress we have made delivering on our key strategic objectives. We've continued to experience uncertain economic conditions, it's clear that this will continue for some time. Investment market volatility, rising inflation, and higher interest rates are impacting our customers and putting pressure on the cost of living.
AMP is well-positioned to navigate this environment and continue supporting our customers and delivering for shareholders with a robust balance sheet and capital position, strong credit quality in our bank's loan book, and a clear strategy identifying the key areas for longer-term growth. Two of the key parts of our strategy were and are to reposition and simplify the business. Much work has occurred. I think it's important to remind all of our stakeholders what the business will look like post the completion of the AMP Capital sales. Our Australian businesses consist of AMP Bank, our digital-first retail challenger bank, and our three wealth management businesses: Platforms, which comprises our flagship North wrap platform, Advice, which provides professional services to advisers, both aligned and non-aligned, and Master Trust, our superannuation business.
New Zealand operates as a relatively standalone business, offering wealth management, financial advice, and distribution of general insurance products. The businesses reflect the AMP of today and tomorrow and continue our 170-year history of supporting our customers with their financial wellbeing. This simplified and more streamlined portfolio sets up AMP for the future and allows us to focus on our growth opportunities in AMP Bank and Platforms. Of course, we cannot forget our strategic partnerships, including China Life on the investment management and pension side.
The joint ventures are well-positioned to benefit from the growth of the pension and retail investment industry in China. We also have our minority stake in the U.S.-based real estate manager, PCCP. With our decision to sell the AMP Capital businesses, we'll consider whether these growth opportunities in AMP Bank and Platforms. Of course, we cannot forget our strategic partnerships, including China Life on the investment management and pension side.
The joint ventures are well-positioned to benefit from the growth of the pension and retail investment industry in China. We also have our minority stake in the U.S.-based real estate manager, PCCP. With our decision to sell the AMP Capital businesses, we'll consider whether this stake is the right hold for AMP longer term. For now, it continues to perform in line with our expectations. Now, let's talk about our earnings and execution for the year.
I describe our FY 2022 underlying earnings of AUD 184 million as solid in a market where there was significant uncertainty and downturn. These earnings were impacted by our strategic decision to replace Platforms in Master Trust in 2021 to strengthen our competitive position. It also reflects lower fees earned on assets under management due to the decline in investment markets and a period of margin compression for AMP Bank amid strong competition. Bank margins have, however, started to recover in the second half, as we previously indicated. We grew the mortgage book of the bank by AUD 2 billion, continued to grow the flows from IFAs, and delivered on our cost targets. We also finalized the transactions to sell the AMP Capital businesses, with only the domestic infrastructure and real estate sale to Dexus pending.
Our capital management remains strong, and we remain committed to returning the AUD 1.1 billion capital second half, as we previously indicated. We grew the mortgage book of the bank by AUD 2 billion, continued to grow the flows from IFAs, and delivered on our cost targets. We also finalized the transactions to sell the AMP Capital businesses, with only the domestic infrastructure and real estate sale to Dexus pending. Our capital management remains strong, and we remain committed to returning the AUD 1.1 billion capital to shareholders announced in August last year. To date, we've been able to buy back AUD 267 million of the AUD 350 million initial tranche, and have received regulatory approvals to return a further AUD 400 million. This includes a dividend of AUD 0.025, which will be franked 20%, which we announced today.
This dividend demonstrates our confidence about the future trajectory of our company. We have a strong balance sheet. We'll continue to assess strategic opportunities to drive sustainable growth in our key areas. As you would expect, these options will always be considered against alternative options to drive shareholder value. The achievements of 2022 are significant for AMP and demonstrate that we're able to execute on our promises and give us confidence in the future. Diving a little deeper into these deliverables, in the bank, despite highly competitive conditions, we've continued to grow organically and inorganically, seeing 16% customer growth and 1.8x systems growth or, excluding Nano, 1.5 x. We also launched one of the true first end-to-end digital mortgages in the H2 of the year as we expanded our direct-to-consumer offers.
It is in the early stages but demonstrates we can deliver quickly and utilize partnerships to our advantage. IFA flows in our flagship North platform trended upwards again, increasing 31% on 2021. Flows generally are improving. We launched a set of unique-to-market retirement income solutions at the end of last year. We want to become known as the retirement specialists. Importantly, these new solutions encouraged advisors to re-look at AMP as a platform provider for their broader business. In April 2022, we secured the sales of the AMP Capital businesses to Dexus and DigitalBridge. The DigitalBridge deal completed two weeks ago. We continue to work towards completion of the Dexus deal with one condition precedent outstanding. We are working on an alternative means of completing the deal if this approval is not forthcoming.
We've also completed much of the work in 2022 to separate these businesses and prepare them for the transfer to their new owners. These transactions simplify the business and do enable us to focus our energy resources into the future. For our people and customers, it was also important that we launched AMP's new purpose, helping people create their tomorrow, and five values to guide the actions and behaviors of our employees.
I'm particularly proud of the purpose and values which reflect a step change in AMP's corporate culture as a customer-focused and purpose-led organization. AMP is well-positioned as we head into a more uncertain environment. We've simplified our portfolio and repositioned it for the future. We'll continue to invest in our key growth areas of Bank and Platforms, as well as enhancing our digital capabilities and introducing innovative direct-to-customer offers.
We'll continue to explore and support new growth opportunities. Operational efficiency will also remain a continued focus. AMP is well-positioned as we head into a more uncertain environment. We've simplified our portfolio and repositioned it for the future. We'll continue to invest in our key growth areas of Bank and Platforms, as well as enhancing our digital capabilities and introducing innovative direct-to-customer offers. We'll continue to explore and support new growth opportunities. Operational efficiency will also remain a continued focus, I know Peter will help in this endeavor. As you've heard me say many times, delivering capital returns to shareholders will also remain a priority in 2023. We have a strong executive team in place, we've built a culture of performance and capability. As mentioned last year, we did launch our new purpose, helping people create their tomorrow.
This is an important reminder of how this comes to life for our customers, our people, and the communities in which we operate. At the core of AMP is a long history of delivering for and contributing to the community, and this remains critical to the business today. When we think about our strategy and how we'll grow AMP, we approach this from a position of creating value for all stakeholders. We understand the importance of our role as custodians of the wealth and retirement savings of Australians and the role we can play in improving the financial health and well-being of customers, as well as those in the broader community through our independently funded AMP Foundation. These pursuits are all the more important, and this remains critical to the business today.
When we think about our strategy and how we'll grow AMP, we approach this from a position of creating value for all stakeholders. We understand the importance of our role as custodians of the wealth and retirement savings of Australians, and the role we can play in improving the financial health and well-being of customers, as well as those in the broader community through our independently funded AMP Foundation. These pursuits are all the more important in these challenging economic times, and it's important for AMP to never lose sight of this broader role that it has played over many years. Let me now ask Peter to talk through the financials.
Thanks, Alexis, good morning, everybody. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Peter Fredricson, Chief Financial Officer of AMP. I joined the company in January of this year. I'm pleased to be here presenting our FY 2022 financial results to you today. It's a privilege to be part of this iconic business at this time as we progress our transformation and reset the business to deliver on our strategic growth plans, meet the needs of our customers, and create value for our shareholders. I'll be taking you through our full year results today with a particular focus on two key areas: the earnings for each of our businesses, transformation and reset the business to deliver on our strategic growth plans, meet the needs of our customers, and create value for our shareholders.
I'll be taking you through our full year results today with a particular focus on two key areas: the earnings for each of our businesses and our capital position and capital management initiatives, including our pro forma surplus once the remaining AMP Capital sale completes. At the outset, I want to note that as we work through the completion of the AMP Capital sales, we've reported the results for that business as either continuing or discontinued operations. Continuing operations includes China Life AMP Asset Management or CLAMP, PCCP, and a number of other sponsor investments that we are retaining post the completion of those sales. Discontinued operations includes the sold or held for sale operations of infrastructure debt, global equities and fixed income, international infrastructure equity, and real estate and domestic infrastructure equity.
The move of the Multi-Asset Group, known now as AMP Investments, into the Australian Wealth Management Group is again reflected in these results operations of infrastructure debt global equities and fixed income, international infrastructure equity, and real estate and domestic infrastructure equity. The move of the Multi-Asset Group, known now as AMP Investments, into the Australian Wealth Management Group is again reflected in these results with all comparatives restated accordingly. As is the norm with our results, additional commentary and details can be found in this investor pre-presentation and the investor report lodged with the ASX earlier today. On slide nine, you'll see our FY 2022 summary, where underlying profit is AUD 184 million for the year.
Whilst down relative to FY 2021 underlying results, this result was largely expected as it reflects the impact of strategic pricing changes in our Master Trust and Platforms businesses, investment market volatility driving assets under management lower, and NIM compression in an increasingly competitive residential mortgage market. Losses in Advice reduced materially over the full year, reflecting the significant progress we've made on the road to transforming the business into a sustainable standalone business. Our bottom line result was favorably impacted by an AUD 390 million gain on the sale of the infrastructure debt platform, partly offset by separation costs relating to the sale of our AMP Capital businesses and the AUD 68 million of impairments announced last month. All up, the bottom line statutory net profit for the full year of AUD 387 million is a pleasing outcome.
The waterfall on slide 10 steps through a number of key post-tax profit drivers for the year. Some key metrics that I would especially call out. A combination of an increasingly competitive market and the full year impact of product switching from variable to fixed rate mortgages contributed to a 24 basis point compression in net interest margins for the bank. An $88 million reduction in earnings in our Australian Wealth Management business of Mastertrust, businesses of Mastertrust and Platforms was largely due to strategic pricing changes implemented in the H2 2021 and reduced AUM as a result of the ongoing underperformance of global investment markets in an environment where overall fund flows into the AWM business were substantially neutral for the year.
A very disciplined focus on cost management with the work we've undertaken to reshape our business resulted in a $38 million post-tax improvement in controllable costs compared to the same time last year, bringing controllable costs into our FY 2022 target level of around $790 million for the year. On slide 11, we outline the items below our underlying NPAT result. These comprise of one-off, non-recurring revenues and costs. Key movements here include $25 million for client remediation and related costs, primarily relating to the APRA Enforceable Undertaking we committed global costs in it, to our FY 2022 target level of around $790 million for the year. On slide 11, we outline the items below our underlying NPAT result. These comprise of one-off, non-recurring revenues and costs.
Key movements here include $25 million for client remediation and related costs, primarily relating to the APRA Enforceable Undertaking we committed to in November 2021. $61 million in transformation costs, largely relating to realizing cost improvements across the business. $90 million in separation costs relating to AMP Capital as we progressed the announced trade sales, including some costs we had incurred early in 2022 through the early analysis of the demerger of the business. Sixty-eight million dollars of impairments around property and systems that we signaled to the market in our release on the 25th of January. All of these were offset by a net gain of around $400 million for the year, largely owing to the $390 million gain on sale of the infrastructure debt platform.
Moving now to our business unit performances, starting with AMP Bank on slide 12. Full year NPAT of AUD 103 million reflects a reduction in revenues for the market in our release on the 25th of January. All of these were offset by a net gain of around AUD 400 million for the year, largely owing to the AUD 390 million gain on sale of the infrastructure debt platform. Moving now to our business unit performances, starting with AMP Bank on slide 12. Full year NPAT of AUD 103 million reflects a reduction in revenues primarily as a result of NIM compression experienced in the H1 of the year.
That AUD 103 million should be measured against FY 2021 NPAT that's adjusted to around AUD 135 million after taking into account the AUD 26 million release of credit loss provisions related to the impact of COVID-19 that was reflected in the previous FY 2021 result. All up, a solid result when also taking into consideration the growth in the loan book and the cost associated with customer deposits to support that growth. Slide 13 gives us a waterfall of the NIM compression through the year. Pleasingly, and as we guided to at our first half results in August, AMP Bank's H1 2022 NIM of 1.44% was 12 basis points higher than the H1 2022 , driven by an active focus on margin management.
This increase arose primarily from interest rate rises experienced through the half, offset with careful management of our funding base relative to the growth of the loan book. Intense competition and a higher proportion of fixed loans in the first half continued to place downward pressure on revenue margins in the year, with the full-year NIM at 1.38%, 24 basis points lower than FY 2021. We just go back to Slide 12, what you'll see here is that our continued focus on enhancing service and price propositions within the bank saw 9.4% growth in our residential mortgage book to $23.8 billion. This growth included the acquisition of Nano's loan portfolio in late December, with around $400 million of loans transferred in by the year-end.
Total growth represented approximately 1.8x system, or 1.5x excluding the Nano acquisition for the year. A good result given the competitive landscape within which the bank continues to operate. Total deposits for the year increased by AUD 3.1 billion or 18% on the prior year, with household deposits growing 3.6 x system. The majority of these flows were sourced from customer deposits, largely on term deposit. As with the whole of the group, an active approach to cost management and discipline are an ongoing focus for the bank.
Strategic investments in technology as we work to digitize, automate, and improve operational efficiency to enhance customer experience and facilitate future growth, saw FY 2022 controllable costs increase 7% to AUD 135 million, driving the bank's cost-to-income ratio to 47.4% for the year. On slide 14, we've included some additional metrics on the bank and our progress in growing the loan book. The chart on the left-hand side illustrates the point I was making earlier about the strong loan growth we experienced in the second half, which resulted in growth of 1.5 x system over the year, excluding the Nano acquisition.
This growth has been supported by a strengthened digital capability, which, coupled with enhancements in our service proposition, has delivered a 33% improvement on median customer cycle time to unconditional approval, now at 8.3 days.What is most important is that as we pursue growth, we are maintaining the high quality of our loan book. At December 31, 67% of mortgages are on owner-occupied properties, with interest-only lending as a percentage of the total book remaining steady at 15%. The average loan-to-value ratio in the book sits at 66%, and the dynamic LVR for existing mortgage business increased 5% to 63%, reflecting recent movements in most property values. It's inevitable that rising interest rates will cause stress for some customers. However, we have systems in place to work with those customers to find appropriate solutions.
We also have strong buffers in place, and we continue to closely monitor arrears rates, which are performing well in comparison to peers. With the 90-day plus arrears, the 90-plus day arrears rate improving 0.2 percentage points to 0.3%, and the 30-plus day arrears rate increasing only slightly to 0.8%. One thing we should mention is that the number of our customers have used the low rate environment in recent years to pay ahead of their schedule. As at the 31st of December, around 41% of the AMP mortgages of AMP Bank mortgages are ahead by in excess of three months, and we retain strong levels of either offset and/or redraw balance accounts within the book. Looking forward, we will continue to prioritize writing mortgages profitably.
We expect FY 2023 residential loan growth to be in line with FY 2022, again acknowledging the competitive lending market, and we expect NIM to be substantially in line with FY 2022 rates. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to disclose the key performance measures for each of the wealth management business units in Australia, starting with our Platforms business on slide 15. Underlying profit of AUD 66 million for the year reflects the impact of competitive pricing initiatives and strategic investment undertaking in FY 2021 to position the business for future growth. Lower investment returns across global markets impacted average AUM, assets under management, which was down 1.4% to AUD 66.3 billion, in turn, contributing to lower revenue.
Furthermore, higher than previously experienced volatility in investment markets saw us book losses against North Guarantee hedges, where last year we had booked profits on those instruments. As noted on slide 16, Platforms recorded net cash flows of $936 million in 2022, up from $83 million of net cash inflows in 2021. North net cash flows of $5.7 billion were up $2.4 billion compared to FY 2021, driven by the closure of our Summit and Generations products in the fourth quarter and the migration of existing members to the North platform. Inflows to North from independent financial advisors in the year of $1.7 billion were up 31% on FY 2021 and reflect our ongoing efforts and success in continuing to grow this key strategic platform.
On slide 17, we now show the results for Master Trust, which delivered subdued earnings in the year off the back of weaker investment markets, the strategic repricing we spoke of earlier, and the loss of one reasonably large corporate superannuation mandate. Underlying profit of AUD 55 million in the year was largely due to the impact of pricing changes implemented in October 2021 as part of simplification activities. The lower cost base resulting from an ongoing focus on operational efficiency helped to deliver a solid Master Trust profit. Net cash outflows of AUD 3.9 billion improved from outflows of AUD 5.2 billion for the same period last year, with AUD 400 million in pension payments and AUD 940 million of mandate losses contributing to those outflows.
While underlying cash flow trends continue to improve, a further significant mandate loss is expected in FY 2023, with the previously announced conclusion of a large corporate super mandate expected to contribute approximately $4 billion in cash outflows by year-end. The exit of that mandate is not expected to have a material impact on profitability. Master Trust assets under management at year-end of $54 billion was 14% lower than FY 20 21, driven primarily by weaker investment market returns and, to a lesser extent, the impact of those net cash outflows. Further, future simplification will focus on investment structures and menus, and while this will reduce assets under management-based revenues somewhat, we expect investment management expenses to also reduce to offset any revenue impact.
This continues our journey towards building a best-of-breed super business to enhance financial outcomes materially and sustainably for our members. Turning to Advice on slide 18, where pleasingly our work on transforming that business to a sustainable standalone business continues to progress well and has resulted in an acceptable full year result within revenue impact. This continues our journey towards building a best of breed super business to enhance financial outcomes materially and sustainably for our members. Turning to Advice on slide 18, where pleasingly our work on transforming that business to a sustainable standalone business continues to progress well and has resulted in an acceptable full year result, with NPAT losses improving in line with guidance to AUD 68 million, more than halving the losses from the previous year.
The FY 2021 result included AUD 18 million of impairments that were not repeated in FY 2022, but FY 2022 did see revenue of AUD 56 million, supported by higher licensee fees, improving in line with guidance to AUD 68 million, more than halving the losses from the previous year. The FY 2021 result included AUD 18 million of impairments that were not repeated in FY 2022, but FY 2022 did see revenue of AUD 56 million, supported by higher licensee fees following the introduction of new commercial terms. Of greater note was the reduction of some AUD 47 million in controllable costs within the business. The continued focus on costs was reflected in a 25.4% reduction in controllable costs in the year to AUD 138 million, due to cost out activity and the completion of a number of Advice reshaped projects.
Moving now to the results for our New Zealand Wealth Management business on slide 19. The New Zealand business has a compelling position in the overall superannuation savings segment there and operates a successful distribution platform across general insurance and financial advice, creating a diversified revenue base. The business delivered a resilient result for the year, again, despite challenging investment markets. Profit was down 18% to NZD 32 million, primarily due to lower average assets under management from weaker global investment markets. FY 2022 controllable costs of NZD 35 million were down NZD 1 million on the prior corresponding period, reflecting ongoing efforts to offset inflationary pressure observed across the economy, with the simplification of the operating model delivering a lower cost base following the conclusion of New Zealand Wealth Management's term as a KiwiSaver default provider.
Slide 20 provides some background on the AMP Capital results for the year. Overall financial results were down 18.6% to AUD 92 million for the year. Earnings from our continuing operations were up 10.8% to AUD 41 million on the back of higher contributions from our joint venture investments in CLAMP and PCCP. Discontinued operations earnings were down 33% to AUD 51 million, due primarily to a one-off carried interest recognized in 2021 that was not repeated in the current.
Discontinued operations earnings were down 33% to AUD 51 million, due primarily to a one-off carried interest recognized in 2021 that was not repeated in the current year, real estate mandate losses and fee compression in an increasingly competitive market. These factors were somewhat offset by higher revenue relating to real estate sponsor investments and lower costs as a result of business changes post the FY 2022 divestments. Turning to this year, real estate mandate losses and fee compression in an increasingly competitive market. These factors were somewhat offset by higher revenue relating to real estate sponsor investments and lower costs as a result of business changes post the FY 2022 divestments. Turning to slide 21 and a breakdown of the main items within Group Office.
FY 2022 costs were broadly in line with the prior period, with inflation impacts offset by cost out efficiencies achieved within the business. Delivering on our commitments to lower corporate debt volumes in the second half, a reduction of AUD 350 million in debt resulted in a 6% decrease in interest expense, with the lower volume offsetting a somewhat higher cost of debt as rising and higher interest rates took hold throughout the year. CLPC earnings continued to positively contribute to Group Office investment income of AUD 73 million, contributing a not insignificant offset to the loss of returns from our equity investment in Resolution Life Australasia after our sale of that asset in the H1 of 2021.
Moving to slide 22 and our China Life joint ventures, where we're seeing higher earnings from our investments as the Chinese pension market continues to experience strong growth, particularly in CLPC's core business lines. Increasing earnings from CLPC in 2022 resulted in a doubling of the dividend received from that investment to almost AUD 15 million. Chinese investment markets, as with all global investment markets, experienced some challenges in 2022. We are of the view that some further improvement might be anticipated in 2023 as markets stabilize and reopen post COVID-19. Moving now to controllable costs on slide 23. We're in an increasingly competitive sector. We delivered on a key strategic priority for the year, reducing FY 2022 costs by AUD 54 million to AUD 791 million through disciplined cost management and in line with guidance.
The key outcome across the year, which saw our base level of costs rise year- on- year by sedative sector, we delivered on a key strategic priority for the year, reducing FY 2022 costs by AUD 54 million to AUD 791 million through disciplined cost management and in line with guidance. The key outcome across the year, which saw our base level of costs rise year- on- year by AUD 70 million as we transferred AMP Investments and its costs from AMP Capital into AWM, was that a AUD 22 million CPI increase over our base over our cost base and continued investment in businesses to support growth was more than offset by a total of AUD 76 million of reductions achieved through our cost out program.
On a year-on-year comparative basis, costs are down a net AUD 54 million due to those major cost out programs that are ongoing into FY 2023. Notwithstanding the increasingly competitive sectors in which we operate, we expect to report FY 2023 controllable costs flat on FY 2022 by cushioning the impact of further inflationary pressures through ongoing tightening of costs across the business. On slide 24, we show the group capital position as at 31 December 2022. We've provided a breakdown of our capital position, clearly showing the minimum regulatory requirements and the appropriate and prudent buffers mandated by the board to ensure the business is set to withstand ongoing market volatility. Our approach reflects the fact that we're operating in an uncertain market environment in two well-regulated sectors of both banking and wealth.
That said, we have a strong business which gives us the confidence to continue with our previously announced AUD 1.1 billion capital management program, including within that, the resumption of payment of dividends off the back of this year's solid result. Slide 25, we step through the movements in our surplus capital position through the year. Our assessment of the AUD 900 odd million in surplus capital is driven by the solid profit outcome for the year, the sale during FY 2022 of our stake in Resolution Life, and the capital management activities already undertaken in FY 2022. Through the movements in our surplus capital position through the year.
Our assessment of the AUD 900 million odd in surplus capital is driven by the solid profit outcome for the year, the sale during FY 2022 of our stake in Resolution Life, and the capital management activities already undertaken in FY 2022. As at 31 December, AUD 267 million of the initial AUD 350 million share buyback announced in August has been completed. That leaves AUD 83 million of that buyback to complete, which will become our next focus after the release of these results and the payment of a final dividend for the year that we announced today. Beyond this total of AUD 425 million returned to shareholders, we will ask shareholders to approve further buyback at our annual meeting in the end of March.
As a result of our strength in capital position, we are expecting, based on current metrics, to pay both an interim and final dividend for FY 2023 that are each substantially in line with the FY 2022 final dividend as part of the broader AUD 1.1 billion capital management program. Slide 26 shows a pro forma of our surplus capital position, post completion of all the AMP Capital sales. This number is post the AUD 267 million buyback to date, so a further AUD 83 million will be reduced from this pro forma outcome as we complete our full AUD 1.1 billion capital management activities. The pro forma AUD 400 million excess at this point remains a prudent and appropriate level given the type and volatility of the markets that we operate in.
To slide 27, where we provide an outlook for a couple of the key financial metrics across the business in FY 2023. At the Bank, we will continue to target above-system residential loan growth with FY 2023 NIM expected to be generally in line with that achieved over FY 2022. In Platforms, FY 2023 AUM based revenue margins are again expected to be generally in line with FY 2022. Controllable costs are expected to be flat on FY 2022 as higher inflationary pressure somewhat offsets system cost outs that we will look to achieve in FY 2023. In summary, from a financial perspective, we would say that our full year results show that we're well-placed heading into FY 2023, despite the challenging and competitive markets that we have been in and that remain ahead of us today.
My very short time here, what I've seen is an organization committed to a strong purpose to our customers and to the delivery of our strategy and to value for our shareholders. We have delivered a AUD 54 million reduction in costs in the year, despite rising and ongoing inflationary pressures. Our earnings, although lower when compared to the prior period, reflect the resilience of our business after lower investment markets impacted Assets Under Management. Strategic pricing to deliver sustainable businesses reduced revenue, and markets generally provided a much more competitive and challenging environment. With that, I'll hand back to Alexis to take us through the ongoing process and our strategic priorities and wrap up. Thank you.
Thanks very much, Peter. It is important to be reminded of the priorities we set ourselves for FY 2022 and to reflect on how we delivered on these. Given the high interest rates and inflationary pressures that we're seeing, it's important that we support our customers by offering competitive mortgages and deposit rates. We've maintained strong credit quality throughout this period of rising interest rates and remain conscious of the potential impact on costs of the inflationary pressures we are seeing across the economy. Peter. It is important to be reminded of the priorities we set ourselves for FY 2022 and to reflect on how we delivered on these. Given the high interest rates and inflationary pressures that we're seeing, it's important that we support our customers by offering competitive mortgages and deposit rates.
We've maintained strong credit quality throughout this period of rising interest rates and remain conscious of the potential impact on costs of the inflationary pressures we are seeing across the economy. Investment market volatility is impacting average assets under management, but also provides an opportunity to help customers navigate increased uncertainty in financial markets. In a volatile environment, the importance of security around retirement savings becomes even more important, and we have a significant opportunity here with our new lifetime retirement solutions.
Competition in the superannuation industry remains strong and enforces the importance of our strategy for the Master Trust business to simplify and lower costs while continuing to focus on investment performance, where we've made great progress in 2022. For AMP Bank, competition in the sector is also increasing, and we're responding with innovative products such as our digital mortgage.
Important. We have a significant opportunity here with our new lifetime retirement solutions. Competition in the superannuation industry remains strong and enforces the importance of our strategy for the Master Trust business to simplify and lower costs while continuing to focus on investment performance, where we've made great progress in 2022. For AMP Bank, competition in the sector is also increasing. We're responding with innovative products such as our digital mortgage to ensure we remain competitive.
Finally, industry and regulatory change are still top of mind. We remain supportive of the proposals under the Quality of Advice Review. We await the final government response. Regardless, AMP is well-positioned to help address the need for accessible financial advice. We continue to engage with the government and industry to find a solution to meet this need. The path to a new AMP has not changed.
In November 2021, we set out the strategy being to simplify AMP's portfolio, reposition our core businesses in banking and wealth management to better compete, and begin exploring opportunities for long-term sustainable growth. We've made good progress across each of these areas and have clear priorities for 2023. The six strategic priorities that we'll be accountable for in 2023 are clear. We'll be focused on returning capital to shareholders, driving operational efficiency, growing AMP Bank profit.
We'll be focused on returning capital to shareholders, driving operational efficiency, growing AMP Bank profitably, being conscious of the market dynamics, growing IFA flows in our flagship North platform, supporting new growth opportunities, and building on our brand and culture. While we think about these strategic priorities, we also keep in mind our commitment to creating a sustainable and equitable future for all our stakeholders and consider the role we play in addressing sustainability challenges in our communities. To summarize, we've made strong progress on our strategy and delivered on our promises for the year. We're close to finalizing the AMP Capital sales and are repositioning our portfolio to wealth management and banking in Australia and New Zealand.
We have announced and commenced capital returns to shareholders, including the announcement of an AUD 0.025 dividend, which demonstrates our confidence in the business. We've launched first to market retirement solutions for the North platform with the lifetime income account, as well as a new digital mortgage that supports our direct to customer channel. We have more work to go, but I'm pleased with the progress we're making as a purpose-led, customer-focused organization with a high-performance and accountable culture. We have the right team, and I'm confident we can continue to deliver. On that note, Peter and I am happy to take questions, so I'll hand to the moderator.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your question, please press star two. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. The first question today comes from Simon Fitzgerald from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi there, Alexis. Just the first question I wouldn't mind asking is a little bit more around cost. If you can focus for a bit just on the corporate and office costs, you know, I guess I go back to 2015, AMP delivered an underlying profit of AUD 1.1 billion. It had corporate costs, I think, in the order of AUD 61 million then. Today we've got a profit number that's 83% lower at AUD 184 million, yet corporate costs pre-tax are AUD 96 million. I was wondering if you could sort of talk to us about, you know, what your view is about how that should look. I mean, I say that in the context that AMP is now a AUD 3.5 billion market cap company.
Yeah, thank you, Simon. Look, I profess I don't know the composition of the costs in 2015, so maybe you can educate me a little further on that. If I look forward to where we need to be, and I said this from the moment I stepped in the door. Clearly, we still have the legacy of the past in being a far bigger organization, a lot of that sits in the corporate space, than we need to be given the businesses we have today. You know, though, that we're still in the position of transferring many of those business to where we need to be. I said this from the moment I stepped in the door.
Clearly, we still have the legacy of the past in being a far bigger organization, a lot of that sits in the corporate space, than we need to be given the businesses we have today. We're still in the position of transferring many of those businesses out, we're dealing with the stranded costs, some of that comes into the corporate area, some of that doesn't. I think we still got a long way in terms of reducing our costs into the future. Clearly not where we need to be. I think next year, just eating the inflation will be challenging for us, we're absolutely committed to doing that, we'll continue to look to reduce costs. I think that's one thing both Pedro and I are completely united on.
That's helpful. Might just talk to the advice business then, whether you still stand by the previous target of a break-even scenario in FY24?
Yeah, we're still, I mean, we're still ambitious about getting to that zero target by the end of 2024. As I said, last time we were talking, I think that last AUD 20 million-AUD 30 million remains challenging for us, but that is still our ambition.
Okay, that's helpful. Just I got a couple of questions just on the sort of bank, et cetera. The fixed rate mortgages that will roll off in 2023, what's your view on, say, the effective LVR of that group of borrowers? Do you have any sort of comments about what the average increase in their effective interest might be for those borrowers that come off fixed rate mortgages in 2023 and what your exposure is there?
I mean, you can see in the pack that our fixed rate portfolio, I think, is about AUD 2.8 billion, and about 50% of that will roll off through 2023 and 50% through 2024. Depending on when those people came into the portfolio, you know, their interest rates could rise from 2-ish to 6-ish. That's about the numbers we expect. I don't have the LVRs specifically in my head for the fixed rate portfolio, but you know, at this point, most of those customers, and I say most, sit under the buffers that we set, clearly it's a more challenging environment.
I mean, if you look at our arrears at the moment, the 30-day arrears have started to tick up a little bit, but there's nothing alarming there, and the credit quality of the book still looks quite healthy. Obviously, we need to keep a close eye on that.
Yeah, no, that's fair. Then maybe you could make some comments too about how you see your overall funding mix going forward. I mean, at the moment, there seems to be a bit of a competition for deposits at the moment. Just wondering what your sort of thoughts are there in terms of the competitive landscape for attraction of deposits.
I mean, if you look at our deposit funding over the last years, we've been in the 80%, and we still are in that space. We've become a bit of a digital deposit acquisition machine, to be honest. I think we acquired about AUD 3.6 billion last year and continue to do so this year. Your comments around funding are definitely factual. You know, the market is more competitive. There has been a lot of cheap funding available to some of our competitors, and that probably isn't the case now. I think we've really established ourselves as a deposit machine. Clearly, it's gonna be a more challenging environment.
Just one final question, if I may, Alexis, just in terms of the investments in the associates with particular reference to PacCoast, I'm just wondering what the long-term sort of outlook for that holding of that business might be?
Sorry, I didn't quite hear that. Which holding?
PC.
PCCP. Sorry. It's just the acronyms there we all use. I think I've been clear about the fact as we sold the AMP Capital businesses, it kind of isn't natural fit to have a US real estate in our portfolio. We've been talking to the founders of the business. At this point, that business continues to perform against expectations for us.
Okay. Thank you for taking my questions.
Thank you. The next question comes from Lafitani Sotiriou from MST. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thanks for the opportunity to ask some questions. May I start with the private wealth business. I acknowledge your comments in relation to the advice and the ambition to continue cutting costs there. There's some other dynamics that are playing out in this business, and I wouldn't mind getting a bit more information. I know that it happened in the first half to an extent, but, you know, if you look at FY 2022, there's a negative AUD 17 million investment experience, and there's positive AUD 15 million in bias and the ambition to continue cutting costs there. There's some other dynamics that are playing out in this business, and I wouldn't mind getting a bit more information.
I know that it happened in the first half to an extent, but, you know, if you look at financial year 2022, there's a negative AUD 17 million investment experience, and there's positive AUD 15 million in 21. You know, there's a AUD 32 million delta there. It's I think it's, from memory, got something to do with the guaranteed products. Can you just give us a little bit more color as to what's happening there and what your expectations are to managing this volatility?
Thanks for the question, Laf, I will ask Peter to comment on that. I mean, you're quite right in pointing out a lot of that relates to the hedging program for the guaranteed product in North. You know, over the cycle, we'd expect that to come to zero. Obviously, in any one year, it doesn't become zero. Peter, do you just wanna talk about 2021 versus 2022?
Yeah. Look, interestingly enough, there's a $29 million delta on the North Guarantee platform alone year-over-year. I think we're showing something like $14 million, $15 million negative in FY 2022 against $12 million positive outcome in FY 2021. The issue with the sorts of instruments we've got to underpin that product is that there is volatility, that delta on the North Guarantee platform alone year-over-year. I think we're showing something like $14 million, $15 million negative in FY 2022 against $12 million positive outcome in FY 2021. The issue with the sorts of instruments we've got to underpin that product is that there is volatility.
That volatility does hit the P&L. You know, there was significantly more negative volatility, if you like, given the very significant and very rapid rise in interest rates through FY 2022. One would expect there to be less volatility in a more benign interest rate environment or a more balanced interest rate environment. You know, no one's ever gonna give you an expectation of what those numbers look like next year. One would hope that in a more, in a more balanced environment in the context of changes in and very rapid rise in interest rates through FY 2022, one would expect there to be less volatility in a more benign interest rate environment or a more balanced interest rate environment.
You know, no one's ever gonna give you an expectation of what those numbers look like next year. But one would hope that in a, in a, in a more, in a more balanced environment in the context of changes in rates, whether they're up or down, the volatility would be significantly less.
Over history last, you know, about zero, so you'd hope that over time that's about where we hit with those.
It's interesting because the impact of that, of that instrument around that product over the last eight years is weights, whether they're up or down, the volatility would be significantly less.
Just moving on in that same business. Now, in Wealth other line, there was a sort of AUD 9 million deterioration from the first half to the second half. As I understand, that primarily relates to SuperConcepts and the previous MAG business. Can you just talk us through what that deterioration is? Has there been some repricing setting? Ultimately, there's a serious question here. You're carrying some business, another two businesses it looks like, within the Wealth division that aren't profitable. Are there some serious questions being asked internally? You know, if you can't get advice to Jigsaw, why are you still owning it? Why are you still owning SuperConcepts? Is MAG a natural fit if you're still losing all this money?
If you could just add some color to-
Yeah
-to those.
I think when we talked at the half-year results, Laf, we said not to expect the same cost reductions in advice in the second half as we did in the first half. I would just comment on that because of the nature of the variability of the costs. I mean, I'm sure there's a few other anomalies in there, but I would say that that's one of the major reasons. You're right to call out the fact that, you know, advice is still a loss-making business, and we're not trying to hide that. We've been very transparent about our results. At this point, we believe the advice business is a very important part of the portfolio. It has been a very important part historically in supporting our wealth management business and continues to do so.
We're very committed to bringing that to a break-even business. I'm not suggesting that's gonna be an easy trajectory. It is not. We're working very hard, along with our Head of Advice, Matt Lawler. Let me comment on that. In terms of SuperConcepts, I mean, I think it's been a AUD 5 million or so drag on the bottom line for quite a few years now. It is a business we continue to look at and to try and make more efficient, but, you know, clearly it continues to make loss, and continues to do so. We're very committed to bringing that to a break-even business. I'm not suggesting that's gonna be an easy trajectory. It is not. We're working very hard, along with our Head of Advice, Matt Lawler.
Let me comment on that. In terms of SuperConcepts, I mean, I think it's been a AUD 5 million drag on the bottom line, for quite a few years now. It is a business we continue to look at and to try and make more efficient, but, you know, clearly it continues to make loss. I think, you know, we're focused on both those businesses. At the moment, they both remain an important part of the portfolio, but certainly we need to make sure they get towards that break-even base.
Okay. why don't I move on? Just going on to the sale to Dexus. Can you give us a little bit more detail around what plan C or the third plan, whatever you wanna call it? Because we're roughly a week away from the revised deadline, if we do move past the revised deadline, are we looking at a potential reset again of the upfront component? What factors go into determining the change in the upfront component? Because, you know, one of the things that happened between your last result and now, we've seen the upfront move from $250- $225. I mean, what drove that change in price? What may the new price be if you don't reach the next deadline?
Yeah. Clearly, we're working hard on the original plan, which obviously is that condition precedent I referred to before, by the end of this month. You know, we have to work on alternatives 'cause that may or may not be forthcoming. The team is working really hard now to get to that alternative plan, which would allow the management of the assets to move across to Dexus, along with the majority of people, during that March period. You know that we have here two willing parties, two parties genuinely coming to the table to work on this alternative plan. Dexus clearly wants the assets of AMP included in their portfolio, and we clearly wanna deliver both the assets and the people to them, 'cause it's a much better home for them right now.
We are It's complex, so I'm not suggesting it's not that alternative plan. We continue to working in goodwill towards that date of 28th of February, with the completion a little bit later. At this point, I don't have any comments to make about whether there might be further reductions. We're working on the basis of what we sent to the market in early January.
Okay, just one follow-up question with the overall cost guidance. There is a little bit of surprise. I mean, you know, this is a follow-up from the earlier question. You are carrying a lot of cost and, you know, keeping it just to the-
With the completion a little bit later. At this point, I don't have any comments to make about whether there might be further reductions. We're working on the basis of what we sent to the market in early January.
Okay, just one follow-up question with the overall cost guidance. There is a little bit of surprise. I mean, you know, this is a follow-up from the earlier question. You are carrying a lot of cost and, you know, keeping it just to the, keeping it flat, like I understand there's inflation around, seem, may seem like a good outcome. Do you think that there isn't more opportunity to start moving on that quicker, as in this financial year, rather than pushing it to next financial year?
Let me take that in a few parts. Firstly, there is 8% inflation, right? I'm not suggesting wage increases are in that realm. The industry data would suggest they're not. It still is going to be quite high this year, so we have to eat that 8%. We also, while we've sold a lot of businesses, we still have the legacy and history of those businesses within our operating model, whether that's from a technology perspective, whether that's from an entity perspective, et cetera, et cetera. So that's why we've guided the market towards flat costs in 2023, and I'm not. That in itself will not be easy to achieve. What I will say, though, is I know that our cost base is too high for the size of the business we have.
Peter has walked in the door, and he knows that our cost base is too high for the size of the business we have. We will work hard on that, Laf, and we will work hard on it through 2023. We'll work hard on it through 2024. I just don't wanna give unreal expectations to our shareholders, given the work we need to do in 2023 in terms of simplifying that landscape operating model, et cetera.
Thank you for that. Just one final question. If we're looking at, you know, the return on capital in the bank, the underearning in the advice business and the respective assets there, is there some serious questions internally about do you actually put some of these key assets up for sale? I mean, you would get a good price for North. You could get a good price for your bank. Are your shareholders better served by selling some of these key assets?
I mean, Laf, as the CEO, that's a question I have to ask myself every single day of the week, right? What is the right strategy here? 'Cause at the end of the day, I have to deliver value to our shareholders. We'll continue to do that, as will the board. I mean, that is a responsibility I take very importantly, and we discuss various options constantly, both at our executive table.
Price for your bank. Are your shareholders better served by selling some of these key assets?
I mean, Laf, as the CEO, that's a question I have to ask myself every single day of the week, right? What is the right strategy here? 'Cause at the end of the day, I have to deliver value to our shareholders. We'll continue to do that, as will the board. I mean, that is an responsibility I take very importantly, and we discuss various options constantly, both at our executive table and the board table.
Including asset sales, further asset sales are the big ones.
I mean, you've always gotta look at portfolio mix, and I think when I walked in the door, I said looking at portfolio mix will be something we have to constantly do.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Kieren Chidgey from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Just a couple of questions. Maybe just starting on capital, I just wanted to check a couple of numbers Peter called out earlier. The pro forma surplus capital position, previous result I think was AUD 2 billion. You're saying AUD 1.25 billion today, so a reduction of AUD 750 million. There's, you know, obviously around AUD 500 million impact from the buyback you did during the period in the hybrid. Can you just sort of explain what else sort of led to that additional sort of AUD 250 million delta?
AUD 267 million of it's been paid back to shareholders, so that's a, I mean, that's a start point. You'll see in the, in the, in the waterfall that we're also talking about some of the costs that we still have to incur next year, FY 2023. I think it's something in the order of AUD 45 million after tax in terms of, you know, money we are putting to work as part of the program that we talked about a couple of years ago in respect of cost out of the business. If you take those two alone, you're getting down to that AUD 1.2 billion.
The hybrid.
With the hybrid, yeah.
Yeah, I'm taking the buyback obviously and the hybrid into account so that, you know, they're a bit over AUD 500 million. Your surplus capital is reduced by AUD 750. I guess the question is what is that other AUD 250 excluding the buyback and excluding the hybrid?
Yeah. We've also taken out some of the non-liquid assets that were included in our capital base there, Kieren, so you get a better view of the capital.
Okay. I'll maybe follow up on offline on that. This excluding the buyback and excluding the hybrid.
Yeah. We've also taken out some of the non-liquid assets that were included in our capital base there, Kieren, so you get a better view of the capital.
Okay. I'll maybe follow up on offline on that. This AUD 1.25 surplus, adjusting for sort of the remaining capital proceeds or capital returns comes down to a bit over AUD 400 million. Can you just remind us what that AUD 400 is being earmarked for?
Yeah.
Why you're still holding that? I mean, obviously I would think the board target number takes into account volatility, type buffers. Just what is that AUD 400 million earmarked for?
Yeah. Fair question, Kieren. Obviously get asked that question a lot. I think if I look at our surplus capital, the way I think about it is, firstly, in terms of getting the AUD 1.1 billion back to our shareholders, that is going to take us time. As you know, we've already bought back AUD 267 million. We announced a dividend today, which will give back about another AUD 75 million. We'll be able to continue the buyback, you know, in the coming days now we've got the results out, so we can move towards that AUD 350 million. We've committed to additional buyback today, given we've got the regulatory approval subject to shareholder approval in March. That is gonna take us a fair way through 2022, and that is working really, really hard.
We've committed to the additional AUD 350, which we haven't given you any detail on, but we'll continue to work on later in the year. Let's just be clear. That is going to take us into 2024, that is working as hard as we can to get back capital to shareholders. In terms of the surplus, as I've said before, and I'll say again, committed to the additional AUD 350, which we haven't given you any detail on, but we'll continue to work on later in the year. Let's just be clear. That is going to take us into 2024, that is working as hard as we can to get back capital to shareholders. In terms of the surplus, as I've said before, and I'll say again, we need to grow in this organization.
If I look at any surplus capital, I look at it being a third, a third, a third. About a third would go to bank growth. Of course, we have to make sure we grow that bank profitably and, you know, I'm quite serious about that. We can start growing below cost of capital. That doesn't make sense. We need to grow the bank. The second third, we'll look at growth opportunities within that retirement specialist area that I talked about before, because we've still got to bring growth into the organization. The third, the last third, if we can't find opportunities that actually contribute to shareholder value, we'll look for alternative ways to give back to it.
That's not gonna be something I have to worry about until we get into that 2024 year, given how hard we're gonna have to work to give back the initial commitment.
Okay. Thanks. The second question, just flowing on from one of your comments there, Alexis, on growing the bank profitably, you know, the ROE-
Bring growth into the organization. The third, the last third, if we can't find opportunities that actually contribute to shareholder value, we'll look for alternative ways to give back to it. That's not gonna be something I have to worry about until we get into that 2024 year, given how hard we're gonna have to work to give back the initial commitment.
Okay. Thanks. The second question, just flowing on from one of your comments there, Alexis, on growing the bank profitably, you know, the ROE did improve to 10% in the second half, but obviously still fairly benign credit backdrop. On a normalized basis, probably still very high single digits. You know, what is sort of the target ROE within that part of the business? you're happy to grow above system even if you're shy of that at the moment?
Look, I think we've got to be around those numbers, Kieren, which is why we've guided to kind of a flat NIM growth for 2023 in accordance with the average for this year. I am conscious, you know, that there is likely to be less new business through 2023, so there's gonna be.
single digits. You know, what is sort of the target ROE within that part of the business? You're happy to grow above system even if you're shy of that at the moment.
Look, I think we've got to be around those numbers, Kieren, which is why we've guided to kind of a flat NIM growth for 2023 in accordance with the average for this year. I am conscious, you know, that there is likely to be less new business through 2023, so there's gonna be competition in the refinancing area and competition for any new volumes. I think It's great that we've got our digital mortgage out, but I would expect the return in capitals to be similar.
Okay. Just a final question on Wealth Management. Just on the sort of external Investment Management Expenses there came down quite sharply sort of through H2 of 2022, both in AUD terms and in terms of basis points. As we look out through 2023 and you're flagging a little bit more margin compression, I guess mainly in the Master Trust sort of external Investment Management Expenses there came down quite sharply sort of through H2 of 2022, both in AUD terms and in terms of basis points.
As we look out through 2023 and you're flagging a little bit more margin compression, I guess mainly in the Master Trust part of the business, is most of the heavy lifting being done on that investment management expense line or is there opportunity for that to come down proportionally so net margins are a bit more insulated?
Yeah. You're exactly right. We do expect those IMEs to come down broadly in line with the margin compression. It should be reasonably flat overall for the coming years. There's more work in that line.
Okay. Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Andrei Stadnik from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Good morning. I wanted to ask a question around integrating Mana into the bank. For example, how long does it take to underwrite a proven AMP mortgage right now, and how quickly can Mana do it, and when would you hope to actually have that implemented?
Firstly, we expect that book 'cause it's a book migration, so we expect that book migration to happen over the coming months, so it's not gonna be a long period of time. I think, you know, we're talking about two-three months. The Nano book is quite a clean book. Actually, the credit quality was similar to what our credit quality was, so not terribly worried about that. We've already started writing to customers. It should come across pretty quickly. In terms of the time, I mean, you know we've launched our new digital mortgage, so I would expect that the times being experienced for customers, at least those who are refinancing at the moment, would be pretty similar. If you go through a brokerage today with AMP, it's about at that eight, seven-eight days.
Thank you. Just a question on costs, because it seems like the costs were high. What led us we were looking for this result? The cost outlook into next year also seems higher, I think, given what we've seen. Are there any one-off costs, for example, in the second half? Are there is any seasonality? Are there any one-off impacts on costs we should be thinking about?
There definitely is seasonal impact on our costs for a variety of reasons. Firstly, because of our year-end, the wage increases, et cetera, come through in March, so you see a higher impact in the second half. That is an ongoing seasonality adjustment. Secondly, for us, we typically see more of the marketing and branding spend come through in the second half.
Seasonality. Are there any one-off impacts on costs we should be thinking about?
Yeah, there definitely is seasonal impact on our costs for a variety of reasons. Firstly, because of our year-end, the wage increases, et cetera, come through in March, so you see a higher impact in the second half. That is an ongoing seasonality adjustment. Secondly, for us, we typically see more of the marketing and branding spend come through in the second half. Traditionally, we have been a higher second half to first half. We guided towards that at the beginning of the year as well, and we'd had a couple of one-off adjustments that came back in the first half. That is a seasonal adjustment that we've typically had but you're right to call it out.
Thank you.
Thank you, Andre.
Thank you. The next question comes from Nigel Pittaway from Citi. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, guys. Just first of all, a question, if I may, on the advice business. I mean, I think at the half year you said the reshape of Aligned Advice is complete. Yet if you do look at slide 18, it looks like there was a 13% drop in aligned advisers again in the second half. I mean, I guess the question is, you know, do you think you've now got sort of stability?
I mean, I guess the question is, you know, do you think you've now got sort of stability in this business? I mean, I realize there was an industry point at the end of September, but, you know, yeah, are we likely to see this stabilized now moving forward, and how confident are you in that?
I think there's a couple of important points to raise here. You'll see that we put some additional information into our advisor numbers to include what we call our Jigsaw advisors. Those Jigsaw advisors are people that typically were aligned advisors that continue to use our services but may have chosen to self-license because they wanna run their businesses and in a slightly different way than we would have liked under an Aligned badge. It is important to show them because they're still using our services, and we're still getting revenue from them. Obviously we don't have the risk and compliance issues from a licensee perspective. That's why we put those numbers in there.
If you ask me about the reshape of the Aligned portfolio, I think we've reshaped in terms of the services we wanna offer, the prices we wanna offer those services at, what our view is around technology, et cetera. I'm not gonna sit here and say there is no further loss of advisers. There may well be some further adviser reductions. Our focus right now is to make sure that we do that respectfully, and if we can get them into our Jigsaw services, and they still remain part of the AMP.
Our focus right now is to make sure that we do that respectfully, and if we can get them into our Jigsaw services, and they still remain part of the AMP family, for us that's a better proposition. I'm not saying there isn't further advisor reductions. There could well be. I think we are now in a position where we can start to attract people 'cause we've done the hard yards. As you know, that takes a little time to do that.
Okay. Thank you for that. Just on the sort of AUD 20 million-AUD 30 million of cost reduction that you say will be the most challenging in terms of getting that business back to breakeven, I mean, is that really dependent on, you know, some sort of, I guess, reward from the Advice Review? I mean, are you gonna need some help from, I guess, regulation in order to get that last cost out? Is it right to tie up those factors or?
Well, firstly, I mean, as I said, earlier, completely support the Quality of Advice Review because I think as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, our financial literacy is not great. Any way we can help Australians be better aware of their financials, and particularly their superannuation and pension, all the better. I mean, we can't rely on legislation. We have to keep doing the hard yards with or without legislation. I'm not banking on that. If that comes. Well, firstly, I mean, as I said, earlier, completely support the Quality of Advice Review, because I think as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, our financial literacy is not great.
Any way we can help Australians be better aware of their financials and particularly their superannuation and pension all the better. I mean, we can't rely on legislation. We have to keep doing the hard yards with or without legislation. I'm not banking on that. If that comes, I think it'll help us. It'll certainly help us to grow the customer base, but we have to work hard regardless of that. The reason I say the last AUD 20 million-AUD 30 million is hard to get out is, you know, we have had to take a complete reset in a new environment. Clearly, you know, we've built up huge amounts of compliance, risk, and legal resources in a period where we need to be.
I think we have cleared the problems of the past, and we need to reset the way we manage that business in terms of risk and compliance. As has been asked earlier today, we still have a corporate office that is too big for the size of the organization, and some of that flows through advice as well. Both of those we need to continue to work on. I'm not relying on the Quality of Advice Review to hit our guidance in relation to advice.
Okay, thank you for that. Maybe just finally, I mean, previously you'd, I think said on the Master Trust business that you had the expectation of that being cashflow net positive in FY24. I may have missed it, I didn't see that reiterated today, is that still the expectation?
I'd love. That would be an ambition, I think to get it to net co-cashflow positive by 2024 is ambitious for us. It doesn't mean we won't stop trying, but it certainly is ambitious given we've still got the large mandate coming out this year, and it is incredibly competitive environment. We are working on it. I think it will be ambitious, though.
Okay, great. Thanks very much for that.
Thank you.
Thank you. The last question today comes from Lafitani Sotiriou from MST. Please go ahead.
All right, just one follow-up question in relation to the ex-excess capital position I think Kieran asked about. There was a comment that you made about no longer including some non-liquid amounts in that excess capital calculation. Can you provide a little bit more color as to what that is?
We can do that at a later time. We'll explain the differences Laf, but there's some deferred tax assets there which you can find in our accounts, and some of that is included in capital at the group levels.
Just to be clear, so at the last result, that was included.
Yes.
In this result, it's not included.
Well, yeah, because we just wanted to be clearer to the shareholders what can absolutely be distributed if we went down that road.
Okay, but is that a yes? In the last presentation, they were included in the excess capital calculation, the slide, and in this presentation, it's not being included.
Some of them were, I think we need to clarify that and show the difference between the AUD 2 billion. We'll get some details out to all of the people on this call today about that difference.
Okay, just one other question in relation to the hybrid. I think that's been. Can you just confirm when that's actually gonna be repaid and when we can start expect to see the cost savings from that adjustment that's come through on the excess capital?
Yeah. We're just obviously still working through the regulatory parts of that. I would expect we're gonna have some additional announcements on that later in the year, but we've got a way to work through there.
Okay, thank you.
Thanks. Thank you very much, everybody. Look forward to speaking to you later.