Thursday, December 12, 2013
FCA vs LTSB and BoS
The Financial Conduct Authority yesterday published the final report notice as per the link below,
http://www.fca.org.uk/static/documents/final-notices/lloyds-tsb-bank-and-bank-of-scotland.pdf
confirming the combined Bank businesses of :
Lloyds TSB Bank PLC and Bank of Scotland PLC, under firm reference numbers
119278 and 169628 respectively were fined a total of £35,048,500 pounds, to which they received a 20% discount for early settlement, taking the actual penalty payment to
£28,038,800
Thats £28 Million pounds of our support money.
Lets be clear, this is about mis-selling financial products to retail customers, us.
If a financial product pays less to a retail customer, it yields more to its parent business
This Bank heavily incentivised staff to sell products that were either; not fit for purpose ( pure mis-sell), under performing, or non performing compared to market
At what point are people going to wake up and realise that Banks are not reputable pillars of our society ? they have propagated that image for far too long and as anyone I have trained will testify - I despise their strategies with a passion.
I worked for a Bank for 11 years, their motto was "Ignorance = Profit" the less the customer knows, the more profit can be harvested from them via financial 'advice' (sic. sales )
I am astonished that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of 'lets beat up the Pay Day lenders', these people have a market created for them by the Banks who are not lending to specific socio economic / demographic group.
As the Banks create a vacuum, other lenders will fill the gaps, if not legitimate licensed lenders, then illegitimate unlicensed ones, STOP yammering on about Pay Day lenders and realise that if the Banks delivered on their social obligations these lenders would naturally pull out of the UK market as it wouldn't exist. Or to put it another way, the Banks made the space and watched it fill up.
And, to be clear, This Bank have just paid £28 million in fines - which represents about 0.4% of the profit made in the review period from products sold that were considered 'unsuitable' for the end users purposes or requirements.
Martin Lewis says 'stand your ground when it comes to Banks'
Paul Lewis says 'don't buy financial products from a Bank'
both of these guys are respected authorities and I agree wholeheartedly with them, but might I propose that we all do the following:
STOP believing the utter financial drivel they spout. They are incapable of running their own businesses, what makes you think their advice is any good ?
STOP buying the sensationalist waffle in the media, its all smoke and mirrors to stop you looking too hard at the Banks. Other lenders don't have the BRAND that the Banks do, so they attempt to undermine the credibility of these organisation at every turn, and they are succeeding.
STOP thinking this is someone elses problem, whether directly or indirectly this issue is, or will hit each of us so hard in the coming decade.
Wake up please Great Britain, realise that Banks in the UK are poorly run, bloated financial leviathans that have been found out by their own incompetencies, and like some street magician are offering you flimsy distractions such as other players in the markets
These fines are insignificant to these juggernaut businesses, media just want to sell paper and you are on the internet looking at this article.
Go and look some more, find out, read and understand - and drop me a line if you don't get something, if I can help, I will.
Andy Tong
Profit Training Ltd.
12.12.2013
