Top management of banks are pressuring their employees to sell insurance, stocks and mutual funds by hook or by crook. No wonder, departing deputy governor of RBI has suggested banning banks from selling third-party products

From the point of view of retail savers, banks are a place where you park your money and get facilities to withdraw, issue cheques and also borrow. But what happens when a bank employee “advises” you to move in and out of stocks, buy a particular insurance product or buy or sell mutual funds? The result is rampant mis-selling, losses and large number of baffled savers.

Here is an email we just got from an Axis Bank employee. “As you are well aware of the practices followed by banks to sell or mis-sell investments products I need not elaborate them. But believe me the pressure, which is applied by the bank’s management throughout the year for selling these products can only be equated to madness. The management puts so much pressure as if without selling these investment products, the bank will not be able to generate any revenues. Moreover, the high percentage of revenues shared by insurance companies during the first year of sales is a major attraction for banks. Almost all banks organise contests within its staff for maximum selling of insurance products, and the rewards include all-paid foreign trips. All expenses, of course, are borne by the insurance companies. In spite of Cobrapost operation, banks have again started these old practices,” said the employee, who does not want to be named.

This mis-selling is not limited only to selling insurance or mutual funds. Some of the banks, which offer broking services, are found many times to misguide its own customers. Take for example, this investor who has a trading account with Axis Direct. He received a call from an Axis Direct executive sometime in February, asking him to sell his Larsen and Toubro (L&T) shares at Rs981. Totally wrong call, leading to huge loss of profit for this investor, as L&T made hit 52-week high at Rs1,387 on 23 April 2014.

Explaining how this happened, the investor told Moneylife, “On 14th February 2014, I received a call from an Axis Direct executive who said, ‘it is a good time to book profits with L&T as there is no positive outlook on the stock and it has max'ed up and the stock cannot go more than the said level and so book profits immediately.’ I sold 120 L&T shares at the price of Rs981. After this point I kept a watch on the stock and I'd have accepted some Rs20 to Rs50 rise/fall in price, I would not have complained. But here the problem is different. The stock kept on rising and its above Rs1,350 which actually converts to a loss of profit of more than Rs44,000.” When he complained, Axis Direct responded by saying, “the stock decision is the sole discretion of the investor!”

The investor said, “Now I am pissed off and have decided to never take the calls from Axis Direct and might abuse them if they come up with advice. Also I believe that this call was made by someone who was low on his monthly targets and I became the victim.”

There are two hard lessons from these examples: 1. Never trust your “banker” to sell you any non-banking product or a third-party product in your interest. 2. Never take buying and selling advice from an employee who has no stake in your profits and losses. Moneylife tells investor not to trade on “hot stock tips” and make investment decision after doing indepth research and analysis. Moneylife Foundation organised free seminar; “Learn to be Safe & Smart with Your Money" on the basics you need to know for your own financial life. Newly launched Moneylife Smart Savers Network provides a complete guide on personal finance.

Investors cannot outsource the job of assessing the risks associated with their investments, selection of right stocks, right time to enter and exit. The Axis Bank bank employee who is pressured to hardsell third party products says, “It is important to restrict banks from selling insurance products (Life & General). Unfortunately the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not yet done anything on this issue. These days bank jobs are not to develop one's career as a banker but to become a salesman without paying much attention to the seriousness of banking business.”

In April 2013, Moneylife Foundation sent a memorandum to RBI governor on behalf of more than 21,500 members (at that time) to free the system of mis-selling of financial products by bankers, misusing the savers’ trust.
 

Moneylife has for long been highlighting the mis-selling of these services with specific examples. This was among the many issues taken up by Moneylife Foundation with RBI deputy governor, Dr KC Chakrabarty, at an Open House meeting in June 2013. In a cover story on such issues, (Read: Banks Vs Depositors ) Moneylife pointed out how selling of insurance, mutual funds and equity advisory services by banks have affected customers, who do not know which regulator will redress their grievance.
 

RBI ignores complaints about third-party products (some are not even regulated), while Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA), both already poor at grievance redress, are even more reluctant to address complaints about mis-selling by banks.
 

Moneylife has highlighted several stories on mis-selling. A year ago, we wrote about how HSBC Bank promised Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, a well-known singer and actor, extravagant assured return of 24% from mutual funds as well as insurance, but instead continuously churned her portfolio. (Read: HSBC loots Suchitra Krishnamoorthi after big promises of 24% returns). The end result after five years was a direct loss of Rs83 lakh from investment, Rs28 lakh in HSBC commissions to HSBC, Rs18 lakh from decline in value of two insurance policies, Rs4.5 lakh tax paid on redemption of short-term mutual funds (including Rs1.85 lakh penalty to the income-tax department due to non-disclosure of gain by HSBC to the client) and Rs58 lakh interest on home loan earned by the Bank.

On 14 March 2014, the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) suddenly called actor Suchitra Krishnamoorthi to discuss a settlement to close her long-pending allegation about gross mis-selling that had caused her a loss of over Rs1.85 crore.
(The Real Story of how HSBC Was Made To Pay)
 

In a similar case, another high net worth individual (HNI) based in London, found out abnormal churning of mutual funds in his portfolio that was managed by HSBC bank. Both are HNIs who were made to sign a power of attorney (POA) in favour of HSBC to handle their investments smartly.

Will RBI intervene in this matter or will it be a silent spectator? Until it does, keep your money in the banks but know that ordinary bankers turn into 'banksters' when they sell you non-banking products like insurance, stocks and mutual funds.

Nowadays, bankers, especially those in private banks have forgotten basic banking and generation of revenues out of banking business, as far as retail savers are concerned. Instead that they have become aggressive salesmen, selling insurance and mutual fund agents selling, often mis-selling these products to their customers or even to non-customers. This is resulting into a total shift of focus from generating revenue from the core banking business to this agency fee income.