Bank teller recounts hard- sell strategies
A FORMER Townsville bank teller who says he saw customers pushed into home loans they could not afford during the city’s economic downturn has welcomed calls to extend the banking royal commission.
The man, who did not wish to be named, was a teller at a major bank branch in Townsville for 18 months from 2015.
“I saw a lot more customers suffering under financial stress than I was expecting,” he said.
He said following the closure of the Queensland Nickel refinery in 2016 staff were under pressure to push home loans on customers to meet sales targets during the tight economic period.
“People got sacked from QNI and it wasn’t as easy to sell the home loans so there was heaps of pressure … even just to maintain the loans you already had so they didn’t walk somewhere else,” he said.
“There was a point where the branch I was at was stealing customers off other branches of the same bank just to meet their target.”
The man said he did not believe he had received adequate training before he started work and struggled to meet sales targets for products and services such as credit cards, loans and opening accounts.
“There was a lack of training from the start and then an expectation of get in and get the job done,” he said.
“The big juicy ( sales) were loans and superannuation because ( the bank) can milk you for a lifetime so they were really pushing those.”
The man said he supported calls from the Federal Opposition to extend the banking royal commission as he believed there were more stories from the regions to be told.
“From what I saw in Townsville, if you’re outside the city it’s cowboy time because you’re far away enough and the numbers are small enough compared to what’s happening in Brisbane or Sydney,” he said. “It was terrible, I’m not a used car sales person but that’s what you had to be.”
Herbert MP Cathy O’Toole sat in on Labor’s banking round table discussion in Townsville with financial services spokeswoman Clare O’Neil and leader Bill Shorten last month.
“The stories were horrific,” Ms O’Toole said. “When you go to a bank and you’re not an accountant … you trust the advice you’ve been given.
“That was consistently the message of every person who came to the round table, they just felt so let down.”
Following the discussion in Townsville, Labor has begun holding more round table meetings around the country. Ms O’Toole said she believed the royal commission should be extended and brought to regional centres such as Townsville.
“Only 27 customers have had the opportunity to tell their stories, while 9300 have put in a written submission,” she said.
“What we saw at the round table was people feeling they were finally heard.”
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Federal Government had consistently offered to extend the inquiry if the commissioner Kenneth Hayne asked for an extension.
Justice Hayne highlighted an insidious culture of greed permeating the big banks in a scathing interim report, but wants to finish the inquiry promptly.
THE BIG JUICY ( SALES) WERE LOANS AND SUPERANNUATION BECAUSE ( THE BANK) CAN MILK YOU FOR A LIFETIME SO THEY WERE REALLY PUSHING THOSE FORMER BANK TELLER