WHISTLEBLOWER - Have the banks been lying to us?

[Janet-M]

note from Moderators -

 

Please be aware of posting anything that may potentially be seen as libellous. We must take care not to let our emotions gain the upper hand. Please do not post accusations etc about banks that cannot be substantiated.

 

Thank you.

[Guest ian cognito]

Quote from Barclays resonse to the programme:

 

Now that we have seen the allegations in full, we will move fast to establish the facts. Wherever there has been improper behaviour, we will take swift and appropriate action to improve what we do.

 

That'll be everybody's charges coming back then?

[Bookworm]

I will never trust a bank again.

 

You did before?

[barracad]

You did before?

 

I think it's fair to say that many of us have trusted banks at some point in our lives. (Before we knew better, of course!)

 

Thanks to exposure like this, more and more people will open their eyes and realise their bank may not hold as much integrity as they have been led to believe.

[Guest Battleaxe]

You did before?

 

 

Yes, stupid of me, but I believed the banks were like Caesars wife.

[Guest Alison82]

Wow!!

 

Unfortunately I missed the show...wait!!! but I have taped it and will be watching it later with a nice cup of tea!!!

 

I wonder who is hated more now The Banks, Gordon Brown or Traffic Wardens??!!!

 

I love this site, I think I might take a stroll over to Barclays in my lunch break and see how many customers are closing accounts!!

[cascade]

Lol! Alison82, quite a few I should think. Barclays must be reeling at the disclosures last night. The only thing is, customers will just be moving from one bad egg to another.

[noomill060]

bankfodder asks whether the banks have been lying to us.

 

If they have, then they, or their legal teams have also clearly been lying to the courts in the defences they send in response to our claims.

 

In the olden days this was called perjury.

[Cornucopia]

I can't tell you how shocked and disgusted I was to watch the programme last night........too many points to mention as we all know!

 

However, this morning I had to do so business banking at.........you guessed it, Barclays, for my employer and boy did they look sheepish....and strangely downcast. Maybe it was the look of the devil I was casting around....

 

I was particularly upset by the elderly man who wanted to borrow the £500 for bits and pieces of furniture. I do not know, for the life of me, how that woman sleeps at night for trying to flog house contents insurance on the basis of "what if you had a fire". Given that he was trying to borrow money to buy himself basic furniture, I imagine the only thing that was going to burn was him if there were such a tragic event. I was absolutely dumbfounded.

 

I was also disappointed that there was no mention of what happened to the middle-men who were adminstering the theft from people's accounts with the help of a bank insider.

 

However, the fact that it is now in the public domain that the roundabout figure for charges is actually 9p, how can the OFT seriously publicly announce that £12.00 is, in fact, acceptable.

 

Food for thought............

[cascade]

Damage limitation exercise? Check out the link for Barclay's response to The Whistleblower. Barclays

[Cornucopia]

Damage limitation exercise? Check out the link for Barclay's response to The Whistleblower. Barclays

 

One for YouTube perhaps?

[barracad]

However, the fact that it is now in the public domain that the roundabout figure for charges is actually 9p, how can the OFT seriously publicly announce that £12.00 is, in fact, acceptable.

 

I would just like to clarify, again, that there was no suggestion that a charge was actually 9p. The figure quoted was less than £2. Still significantly lower, but not as low as 9p.

[Bookworm]

And I would like to clarify that the OFT will NOT say a figure of £12 will be acceptable, they will set an intervention threshhold for themselves. Nothing to do with us at all.

[DollyDayDream]

I have just watched the programme (I was out last night so I videoed it). Those girls were very brave to do what they did. I am saddened that so many people are being pushed into this kind of behaviour by their employers.

I have just finished reading 'Affluenza' by Oliver James, which is all about the way our society has lost its way in going after materialism and selfishness. Its a very good read.

The cat is well and truly out of the bag now about bank charges, though. They can bluster and spin how they like, but who will believe them? Well done CAG and the Beeb. I won't complain about the licence fee after a programme like that.

DDD.

[Enron]

I think it's fair to say that many of us have trusted banks at some point in our lives. (Before we knew better, of course!)

 

Thanks to exposure like this, more and more people will open their eyes and realise their bank may not hold as much integrity as they have been led to believe.

 

I remember a period when certain banks were there to help you as a customer... and not just there as a corporate entity to fleece you.

 

It seems that in the clammer to increase dividends the customer may be lower down on the list of priorities.

[elsinore]

For Barclays read Any High St Bank plc.

 

I visited a Natwest branch yesterday, to ask for my debit card to be unlocked (old git moment last week at a cashpoint).

 

When the clerk had done the necessary he offered my card back to me. As I took the card he held on to his end of it and said that he couldn’t help noticing that I had a large sum of money reposing in the account and wouldn’t I like to take advantage of a Cash ISA? I told him it was indeed one of the options that I was considering. His eyes lit up like lights in a pinball machine. Kerching! Sale! Bonus! Whoopee! Quick as a flash, with one hand, he produced an application form and a pen! I declined, saying that I had not yet made a decision, as there were other factors involved. ‘Well, just some of it then, you can always draw it out, it’s instant access’ He was polite, well-dressed, but insistent. He tried very hard to convince me to sign up there and then, without knowing anything at all about me or my circumstances. In the end, I leaned over the desk and quietly told him that almost all the money in the account was a refund of unlawful charges from Lloyds TSB and that I and only I would decide how and when it was to be utilised. He let go of the card. I think the irony was lost on him at that moment.

 

I’m sure he is a very nice chap, good son-in-law potential and all that, but seriously misguided. You can replicate him in any bank front office, anywhere in the country. He has been taught and encouraged to sell the bank’s ‘products’ and he is managed by someone with the same purpose. That manager is, in turn, overseen by yet another, more senior manager, who also works to targets. Keep going, up the line, until you reach the CEO who will have you believe that everything in the garden is rosy and that such problems as were exposed on Whistleblower are mere specks of dust on the lapel of corporate profitability..

 

Els

[yvette18]

Hi,

 

Does anyone know what the viewing figures for the programme were?

 

There didn't appear to be any mention about it today on news programmes or the newspapers, everything focused on yesterdays budget.

 

I'm just wondering if the message has really got out to people who not as aware as we are on the CAG website?

 

Yvette

[Beserker]

Hi,

 

My two pen'orth.

 

I have been increasingly aware of the target led culture - more sales, more cost-cutting, more profit = HIGHER SHARE PRICE that is increasingly becoming the norm in our society. The poor sods that sell product for the banks are the result of a culture that pervades all sections of our society. I work in the public sector and this is becoming the norm for our organisation where making profit is not an issue (costs are) so you can imagine the pressure on the front end staff of banks (or any other financial institution) where profit and share price are the sole consideration in offering service. Imho Thatcherism and the I'm all right Jack mentallity of the late 70's and early 80's coupled with new Labours sucking up to the city in more recent times has destroyed what ever public responsibility the City ever felt. Hey if the City is making money it must be good? No because the balance of fairness just shifts towards the rich who, of course, just become richer. It stinks, especially when the two Organisations that are meant to protect us (the OFT and the Ombudsman) are toothless poodles of the Banks. Barclays PR persons employment record sums it up.

 

Banks? Social responsibility? No, (edit) the banks hide behind the "we really do care" rubbish.

 

Rant over.

 

Well done CAG and the Beeb great prog.

[cascade]

elsinore! nice one my sides are bursting! :lol:

[Janet-M]

I hope my rebuttal will be allowed to stay on this post without editing, after all freedom of speech is a right.

Of course it is....if it's a public forum. This isn't.

Of course it it....if someone has paid for rights. No one has .

People have merely registered to be allowed to use the forum and its facilities. That doesn't confer any rights.

 

forum rules

[Seahorse]

My eldest has been working for the Abbey and RBS the past couple of years. He left the Abbey sharpish, as he couldn't take the constant pressure to [persuade] people into signing up for products they didn't really want or need. And has left the RBS for much the same reason, even if they didn't seem to be quite as [edit].

 

No more banks for him. And he's not an isolated case, apparently. There is a HUGE staff turnover. And if they leave quickly, the pressure is obviously on to replace them just as quickly, so no wonder then, that proper security checks seem to get forgotten about, and potentially folks with criminal intent can get jobs in the banks as was exposed on the programme.

[Sickofbanks]

What gets my goat in all of this is the role of the OFT. I know they haven't declared their hand yet, that they don't have any juristiction in law etc etc, BUT what they do is help create the atmosphere that intimidates the general public into feeling too unsure of their ground to take these bullies on, even if it means getting thousands of their own money back.

 

Their true position should be to ensure that banks conduct themselves in a fair manner. Instead too often they sound like the banks have a hand up their back and are working them from offstage!

[progenic7]

Not even going to mention the charges issue as, as we all know thats a given

 

wondered what was thought of the barclaycard fraud going in all over the place. Personally i think barclaycard are playing the fraud aspect down in a huge way, i have come across many other people like the people on the video (that was in a past life i must admit), i personally think fraud like that is rife, look on the internet in the right places and you will see what i mean.

The technique is explicitly simple, a dodgy person goes for the job interview and gets the job, no police checks, no references no nothing !

nice to now the kind of people that have access to our accounts huh.

 

I personally think that alot of the big players have major league loss in these areas, but simple fact is they cant seem to do anything about it.

The more profit they make, the more they can afford the loss, so they better make lots of extra profit and quickly.

I wonder if they ever actually release figures on the fraud losses each year, or if they just try and blurr them into other areas.

 

The fact of it is, go into any back streeet cafe and wait long enough and you'll find somebody that knows somebody that can do this for you.

[Tawnyowl]

Anybody noticed how much advertising Barclays are doing - is this their answer to it all - increase advertising.Seem to have got away with things very lightly.Dont think anything seems to hurt these banks-they might as well pay everybody their charges back -wont bother them that much- or will it?They cant be enjoying all this publicity can they?

[Guest NATTIE]

Somebody once said, no publicity is bad publicity. The Barclays forum is busier know, and the site as a whole is busier. So, last week was last week, to be honest it is probably busier with barclays and less busier with other banks because of the programme. I wonder what else will be broadcast about charges, i suspect at the moment there is a lull until the OFT announcement which will have no impact on charges but potentially on the way the bank will make offers only.