The diversification strategy that Investec Bank (Australia) embarked on under chief executive David Clarke has been scrapped only months after his departure. Acting chief executive Ciaran Whelan is taking the business back to basics.Investec is scaling back or withdrawing from securities, equity capital markets and structured finance products.Clarke was keen to develop fee-based income streams for a bank that had been overly reliant on property finance, which accounted for about 70 per cent of its assets before the financial crisis.However, the new business activities turned out to be in areas where earnings were flat (such as equity capital markets) or volatile.Whelan said: "If you look at our results over the past few years they have not been very good. We are getting out of stock-broking, corporate finance, financial markets and structured products."He said another benefit of cutting its exposure to loss-making or volatile businesses would be a reduction in costs because of a simplification of its back office.Whelan said: "Some of the changes that David made were warranted. The business was over-reliant on property finance. Now we have a small property book, worth about 10 per cent of the balance sheet."We will keep it at that level. It used to be a property development funding business, but now it is part of our high net worth strategy. We will lend on property to the right clients."Whelan said there were solid foundations for the development of the business. One of the areas where he thinks Investec has done well in Australia is professional finance. Over the past five years it has built up a client base of 20,000 medical practitioners and a balance sheet of around A$2 billion."We want to take that model and move into the legal, accounting and other professional areas. What we offer professionals is a service proposition."He believes Investec's funds business has been another success. It has launched a couple of property funds and has more in the pipeline.Another business that has grown is asset finance. Investec bought Alliance Equipment Finance last year and has built on that.