Insight
Title:
Mis-selling and other scandals undermine customer trust
Description:

Recent scandals include:

  • Equitable Life
  • LIBOR fixing
  • Split capital investment trusts
  • Precipice bonds
  • Keydata
  • Arch Cru

Regulator fines include:

  • Barclays, was fine £26m for gold-fix manipulation in May 2014
  • Santander was fined £12.4 million for ‘serious failings’ in its advice arm
  • HSBC was fined £10.5 million for mis-selling investment bonds to elderly clients
  • Lloyds was fined £28 million over the incentives it offered to retail investment staff

Firms operating in the UK who've been fined for activities in other markets.

  • 2016: Deutche Bank tentatively agreed to a deal involving £5.8bn over the sales of mortgage bonds just ahead of the financial crash.

I remember listening into a focus group in which participants were discussing which financial services brands they trusted. One participant remarked, "Well, I have heard of them, and I don't think it was for anything bad, so they're probably trustworthy" as if he was surprsed that there might have been any good news about a financial services brand.

This lack of trust will make it easier for new entrants with more innovative propositions to win market share from the encombents.

McKinsey 7S:
Shared values

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