Panorama to lift the lid on bank advice
Share
Bank advice has again been put under the microscope after a BBC Panorama investigation found advisers in high street banks misleading consumers over potential investments.
The show sent two undercover reporters into high street banks under the guise that they had £90,000 to invest and wanted advice on potential investment opportunities.
One was told that on no stage could he lose that money. The bank adviser said: “It can’t be that you have £50,000 and one day you look at it and it’s zero. It simply can’t happen.”
Speaking on the programme, Bestinvest senior investment adviser Adrian Lowcock said: “It has not been very clear. Charges were not very well explained, risk was not very well explained and fact finds were rushed. On some occasions we saw misleading on the charges conversion and confusion on risk conversations and that doesn’t seen fair on clients.”
The show also details an investor who went to Abbey National - now Santander - to invest an £11,000 sum. Despite insisting that it was crucial the money was safe, the figure had more than halved in six months.Santander turned down her complaint of misselling only for the Financial Ombudsman Service to order the bank to repay the amount lost, plus interest. The investor was still out of pocket after using a claims firm to help her recoup the losses.
In January, the FSA fined Barclays Bank £7.7m for advice failings relating to its sale of Aviva funds. Last month, the FSA fined Bank of Scotland £3.5m for mishandling complaints about its investment advice and ordered it to pay £17m compensation to customers.
The show is set to air on BBC One at 20.30 tonight.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up here to receive daily email updates from Money Marketing and Follow @_moneymarketing
View results 10 per page | 20 per page | 50 per page
Readers' comments (26)
Anonymous | 13 Jun 2011 1:42 pm
I hope that someone at the FSA will watch Panorama and realise that the RDR will only encourage more people to be ripped of by bank staff who have targets to meet. I know this is wishful thinking but one can only hope that the FSA can at least admit their mistakes and take another look at what they are doing to advice in this country
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 13 Jun 2011 1:45 pm
..............well .who would ever believe something like that could happen,.lol.........
lets hope the FSA are allowed to watch this !!!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 13 Jun 2011 1:52 pm
are they allowed to stay up that late.... theres always Iplayer
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
KS | 13 Jun 2011 1:54 pm
Funny - I remember reading and commenting on this approx 5/6 years ago and along with half the IFA community. The Banks are far too big, have too much influnce over the FSA and most of the staff at the FSA are from the Banking industry. As before it will all fall on deaf ears. Take too long to bring to court and then they will just pay up look big and increase customers charges to cover their loss.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Dave Hedge | 13 Jun 2011 1:56 pm
Does anyone think the FSA know anything about life outside their Ivory Tower?
Even if they did watch the programme they are too arrogant to learn by their mistakes.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Mark Walker | 13 Jun 2011 2:10 pm
Interesting comment that the Client was still out of pocket using a Claims Company...she would have had the same outcome complaining directly to the ombudsman.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Mike Jordan | 13 Jun 2011 2:18 pm
You can see how worried these banks are about this bad press - the article criticises Santander and yet they're running an article for their bank in the top corner of the article!!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Peter Herd | 13 Jun 2011 2:20 pm
I ran a campaign about Chelsea building society capital protected product and even got a petition signed by the general public. I sent this to my local MP Daniel Poulter and have had no action whatsoever, so what hope has the British consumer.when even our own politicians don't take the problems with bank assurance seriously.
I don't blame the advisers working at these banks or building societies. I blame the management structures that put them under immense pressure. The people that should be in court are the managing director and board members who sanction these management structures, until this happens, nothing will change.
http://essentialifa.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/chelsea-building-society-misleading-18-capital-protected-bond/
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 13 Jun 2011 2:40 pm
The Banks rule in this country the Government are powerless to do anything, the FSA are just lapdogs. The financial crisis was created by Banks causing thousands to lose their homes in reposessions,they pay little in tax, and they are now shedding jobs by the thousand causing more heartache, and just when the ordinary bloke in the street needs financial advice they introduce RDR to finally put the final nail in the coffin of advice to the working class.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 13 Jun 2011 2:45 pm
@Mike Jordan
MM probably have intelligent banner advertising where the ads that are shown are relevant (if possible) to the content.
This makes sense as it improves conversion rates.
Simples
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment