Client and commission policy is believed to be behind a second mass resignation at the Australian offices of Goldman Sachs JB Were.

Fifteen stockbrokers and financial planners at the firm’s Adelaide offices quit en masse this week to join rival Macquarie Private Wealth, leaving only one person in the office - the state manager.

Insiders say that GSJBW staff are disgruntled at a policy which sets minimum commissions, and sets a maximum number of clients for each advisor.

The defections follow a similar move at the GSJBW offices on the Queensland Gold Coast in March, where the entire office quit all at once.

The situation is a major bonus for Macquarie, which has been expanding its footprint in Adelaide this year after purchasing a long-established broking house in 1999.

Also, the fact that the old JB Were part of the Goldman business is strongly associated with the rival city of Melbourne has played something of a part in market resistance to the company’s expansion in Adelaide.