Tighter education requirements and COVID-19 have contributed to the seventh consecutive quarter of decreasing financial adviser numbers in Australia, research group Rainmaker Information says.

The industry is now back to its June 2016 size after the number of registered financial advisers in Australia dropped 16% in the year to June 30 to 22,334.

During the June quarter, 556 financial advisers registered with new licensees while 1460 ceased registrations.

That brought the total number of advisers joining new licensees for the 12 months to 3997 while nearly 7500 advisers ceased registrations with a licensee.

Rainmaker Information’s Executive Director of Research, Alex Dunnin, says the movements continue to follow the trend that the financial advice industry has experienced since the royal commission into financial services.

“This was followed by tighter education requirements and exams mandated by the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority, while COVID-19 has no doubt impacted the industry as well,” he said.

The five licensees with the largest number of new advisers are State Super Financial Services, Fortnum Private Wealth, Synchron, Lifespan Financial Planning and Interprac Financial Planning.

Financial advisers aligned to banks continue to exit the industry in greater numbers, falling by a quarter in the year. Institutional or bank-aligned licensees now account for 52% of advisers, down from 58% a year ago.

Non-institutionally owned licensees now hold 48% of advisers, up from 42%.