Banks fined £1.1bn for investment and pensions mis-selling
Fines and compensation for misconduct by banks relating to investment advice and pensions totalled more than £1billion over the last 14 years.
A new report into UK bank retail operations has shown Pensions mis-selling cost the sector £0.6bn while for investment advice and product mis-selling it was £0.5bn.
The figures have been published as part of a report by think tank New City Agenda and Cass Business School on the culture of retail banking.
The report stated: "Sales culture is to blame. An aggressive sales culture appeared to be at the heart of many of the problems UK retail banks have faced in the past.
"This culture is the result of the formation of universal banks, increasing expectations for profitability on retail banking divisions, and changing social understanding of debt.
"The result was institutions that focused their entire energy on generating sales of financial products.
"This drove widespread bad practices which have cost the retail operations UK banks and building societies £38.5 billion in fines and redress since 2000."
PPI mis-selling accounted for £27bn.
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Banks have also received 20.8 million complaints between 2008 and the first half of 2014, and 25 million between 2006 and the first half of 2014.
Complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service about banks shot up from 75,000 in 2008/09 to over 400,000 in 2013/14.
The authors were damning in their assessment on whether the conduct of banks had improved.
The report concluded: "Despite significant changes in recent years, the performance of the banks across
a range of dimensions is relatively poor. It is not unlikely that more bad news will come to light.
"Banks may have become safer and more resilient institutions based on prudential measures. However, many of the non-financial measures such as consumer, employee and ethical outcomes remain relatively negative, and in some cases are actually getting worse."
However, it added the banks are "trying to change" with "significant efforts to change their internal cultures".
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