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Bank staff still feel obliged to mis-sell

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  • 17/08/2015
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Banks need to work harder to reform their sales culture, according to Which, as research carried out by the consumer group found three in 10 sales staff still felt expected to mis-sell.

According to the survey carried out among front-line bank staff, despite significant changes to reform sales practices in recent years, 28% of sales staff at the five banking groups still said they sometimes feel expected to mis-sell, regardless of whether it was appropriate.

A further 28% of staff said they still felt uncomfortable with their bank’s approach to sales.

However, the survey noted an improvement since its last investigation as banks have been forced to scrap sales targets. In 2012, four in 10 (40%) sales staff at big banks said they knew colleagues who had mis-sold to meet targets, while almost half (45%) said that they sometimes felt they were expected to sell regardless of whether it was appropriate.

Some 46% of respondents said the availability of incentives for sales had dropped in the last year, with 27% feeling under pressure to sell because of the culture in their bank, compared to 43% in 2012. Eight in 10 (78%) staff said there is more emphasis on good customer service than selling.

Excluding PPI complaints, Santander was the only big bank to see complaints to the Ombudsman fall in the second half of 2014, compared to the same period in 2013. Natwest and RBS suffered the biggest increases in complaints, rising by 41% and 31%, respectively.

Which called on the FCA to continue the work it had started to ensure banks are monitoring sales practices closely and gathering feedback from staff. It added that the Banking Standards Board must keep up the pressure on the industry to drive cultural reform and put customers first.

The report said: “While things are looking up, this is a long journey and removing individual sales targets, on its own, is not enough to reduce the risk of mis-selling.

“We want banks to put customer service at the heart of what they do but our separate analysis of data from the Financial Ombudsman Service shows they’re still not delivering on the basics like complaints handling.”

Which executive director, Richard Lloyd, said: “It’s clear senior bankers have recognised that high pressure selling damages their reputation and is bad for business. Steps have been taken to transform the culture, but more must be done to ensure there isn’t pressure on staff to mis-sell. There is still a long way to go to restore consumer trust in the banking industry. The FCA must continue to focus on raising standards and ensuring banks don’t slide back into their old ways.”

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