Bank workers 'pushed to sell products consumers do not need'
Bank workers are finding themselves sandwiched between management demanding sales targets are met and a public abusing them for pushing products they do not need.
Staff at banks from across the globe have highlighted issues of depression, pressure from management and being forced to sell products they know consumers do not need or understand.
A Lloyds TSB team leader in insurance, speaking anonymously at a conference of international bank workers organised by the UNI Finance Global Union, which represents 237 trade unions and three million workers worldwide, stated as demand for financial products is waning, staff are being pushed into selling insurance.
"The problem is that perception is reality and the public perception of banks and bankers is not real.
"We don't all have huge bonuses. There are staff on just £10,500 a year.
"We have targets we will never hit and have just been told targets are increasing within branches."
She added issues of management claiming problems with sales practices being purely local, when in fact they were true across the whole company were true in the UK, as well as in other countries as staff in Brazil and the US reported similar problems.
She also highlighted problems of staff giving up their free time and time with their family to serve customers so they can meet sales targets - with workers facing league tables on sales.
"It is like going back to the old days of having a cabbage on the desk of those failing to make a sale," she explained.
She explained as demand for financial products fell, sales targets for insurance, "and cover that people do not need," were being increased.
"We need the confidence to sell to meet people's needs. The principle focus, though, is having to sell. People work late so they can fit in customers to sell products.
"There are daily teleconferences with management with targets and we get abuse from the public. We are sandwiched in the middle.
"Customers don't like us and management don't like us."
Oliver Roethig, head of the UNI Finance Global Union, said: "Bank workers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Their discretion is restricted by sales targets."
A bank teller from Brazil, working for a subsidiary of Abbey-owner Banco Santander, said: "We are pressurised. If we do not sell we can lose our jobs. That is why so many bank workers have depression.
"People are afraid and worried. It is normal to work late and it is normal to take anti-depressants.
"I don't feel professional selling just to meet inflexible targets."
Meanwhile a worker from the USA reported his bank was pushing the sale of packaged goods, so customers were buying loans, bank accounts and insurance parcelled together.
Customers coming for a simple current account were being sold a package of products they did not need, and staff were now being told to focus on Hispanic customers whose first language was not English and so who did not fully understand what they were buying.
The Lloyds TSB worker called for the heads of Lloyds Banking, and banks across the world to take ownership of the mistakes that had been made.
She also demanded a better basic wage so staff do not have rely on sales targets and bonuses.
"Front line workers in branches and call centres throughout the sector are under constant pressure to achieve tough targets on sales and referrals. If we don't achieve them we lose out on bonuses and increases in our already meagre basic pay. In the end, if we fail on our targets we will lose our jobs," the Lloyds TSB worker said.
A bank worker from Denmark called for banks to start using risk management to look not only at the risks to a company from selling certain investments, but the consumer risk.
She explained there was the situation where bank managers decide selling a certain product was a good idea, and bank workers had to sell a set number of units - even if they were not suitable for customers, or the customer could not understand them.
Mr Roethig called for a fundamental switch in banking business models, with a bottom-up approach to supervision and risk assessment, along with a charter of responsible sale of financial products.
A spokesperson for Lloyds Banking said it was hard to comment on the allegations of a single anonymous worker and increased targets for any product could have been attached to a single promotion.
Daniel Barnes
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