At CAPE, we know that not all bankers, or people who work in the major banks, are bad people. Many banking employees enter their profession with nothing but good intentions in mind, determined to provide the best service to their customers. However, there are others that are serious rotten apples, and it only takes one egg to ruin the entire basket.
Now, a damning new survey submitted by the Finance Sector Union (FSU) has recommended that every banker working in Australia today should be ineligible for any bonuses or commissions that come their way, if the remuneration occurred as a direct result of selling products not needed.
Stay on target
It's not necessarily the fault of the staff selling the products, however. Frontline banking staff are put under enormous pressure from their managers and those up in the hierarchy, with hitting tough sales targets an everyday struggle for many. As such, employees do everything they can to reach said goals – regardless of whether or not the products they are selling are beneficial to their customers. So what did the survey find?
Frontline banking staff are put under enormous pressure from their managers and those up in the hierarchy.
Almost 1,300 anonymous bank employees were asked several hard-hitting questions across two weeks in August, with their answers undermining trust in the industry yet further. For example, 20 per cent of those surveyed indicated that their bank allowed them do things that may not be ethical or responsible, with 17 per cent of them saying that they had been directly asked to do something unethical.
The survey revealed that higher management put relentless pressure on their employees to recommend completely unsuitable products for their customers, as this would help targets be met. Additionally, staff were badgered to give the hard sell on further accounts, credit cards and loans, as well as direct customers online for the most basic of services, to help drive costs down.
Word from the top
"The relentless pressure applied to bank staff to continually push products and services to consumers in order to satisfy the sales targets set by senior management must end," said FSU acting national secretary Geoff Derrick in a statement.
"The federal government should step in to ban conflicted remuneration from the industry from the top down, including from executive ranks, because our members have told us loud and clear that this is at the heart of the problems faced by bank employees and consumers."
At CAPE, we're big believers in transparency, and, as a customer-owned bank, care deeply about everyone involved with us. We don't know if the big banks will ever change, but with CAPE, you know that you're always in safe, trustworthy hands.
