A list of improvements that should be made by the finance industry:

:Who’s really looking after your money?

:A list of improvements that should be made by the finance industry:

Monday • July 7, 2008

NOT as important as your health or your soul, looking after your money is still high on the list of things you want to get right. That is why bankers, finance and fund managers are paid more than most people — more, certainly, than doctors and priests.

Most doctors and priests are pretty good. Not all, of course, but the majority stick to their vows and fulfil the obligations of their profession. So, it must be said, do many bankers. Although doctors’ and priests’ behaviour are somewhat regulated, they are generally left to make decisions based on their consciences — and the results are mostly satisfactory. So they should be. They are teaching healthy physical and moral behaviour. They know the best teacher is example.

Were our medics and pastors to be over-regulated, problems like those in banking would emerge. Substituting conscience with guidelines is the fastest way to hell on earth.

Do you think your money is being well and trustfully cared for? If your answer is “no” then you may like to consider my 10 requests to the finance industry:

Drop the jargon. Use language we can all understand; treat us as literate but ordinary human beings.

Cut the “products” by 95 per cent. You only have one product. It is called money. There are no other “products”. There may be some opportunities that a bank or fund is willing to guarantee 100 per cent. We would like to know about those, but they are still money.

If a bank wants to act as broker for other investments, let it have a broking division (or use its existing one) and let it charge those who use it for that service. At present we are all being charged for brokerage services whether we want to use them or not. We want basic banking.

Treat us as customers. At present, your customer treatment is confined to your advertising. None of the things you promise in your commercials or press ads comes true for the normal customer. Ban the mind-blowing menus and the egregiousness. Being polite is conducive to good business; being egregious is not.

Be transparent. Your charges are so complicated that no normal customer can understand them. Obfuscation is a well-used tool of doubtful businesses but you are handling people’s hard-earned money, not selling baked beans. Your customers have other things to do than deal with their bank. Help them, don’t confuse them.

Make your charges realistic. Many charges are for sums of money so small that the cost of collection must exceed the revenue generated. Neither you nor your customers benefit from that.

Re-examine your “Relationship Manager” practice. It is obviously necessary to change relationship managers from time to time but having seven in two years — quite common — is hardly conducive to a relationship or to even discovering correct contact information.

Reduce your paper chase. We get more paper from our banks than we do from any other source. The vast majority of it is unnecessarily damaging the planet. Your words of commitment to green corporate social responsibility must be carried through to your paper-creating practices.

Look at your bonus system and your profits. The former is geared almost totally to selling and hardly at all to service. But you are a service, not a sales outlet. Are your profits commensurate with those of service businesses?

You are already over-regulated. Why? Has it worked? It happened because people lost their trust in bankers, not just over sub-prime but over a long time. It has failed because control without trustworthiness can never work.

Go on, you tell your financiers, too.



John Bittleston mentors people in business, career and their personallives at www.TerrificMentors.com

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