Shabby way to treat faithful customers

BANKERS are rarely popular but at least they were, at one time, respected.

Even that fig leaf vanishes with the two extraordinary stories we report today.

The first relates to an eye-popping internal memo from RBS in which the bank’s rapacious tactics at the height of the financial crisis are exposed in inglorious detail.

The headline Just Hit Budget! sums up the ethos: All that matters is the bottom line.

At a time when many firms were desperate for a lifeline, RBS was milking them for all they were worth. Underhand tactics were employed so new T&Cs could be instantly forced on firms, and sales techniques that would make a second-hand car salesman blush were recommended.

Worst is the sickening line: ‘Sometimes you need to let customers hang themselves.’

Any doubt that RBS was operating like anything other than avaricious pirates, fixated on how much it could wring from business customers, is removed in just eight callous words.

And the second story pulls the rug from under any suggestion that the RBS culture has changed markedly in the intervening years.

The bank promised it would not shut ‘the last branch in town’ – a pledge that lies in tatters as the latest tranche of closures bites.

RBS – bailed out by the taxpayer with £45billion – has closed two-thirds of its branches in Scotland in five years. Estimates are that 200 Scots branches have gone since 2013, a slap in the face for the very people to whom it owes its survival.

Disingenuously, RBS says branch usage has dropped. Of course it has. Customers have been forced online whether they like it or not, and many older customers most certainly do not. The lack of a local bank is a major headache for businesses which often have cash to deposit – not possible via an app.

Conservative Paul Masterton has told RBS: ‘The way you treat your customers is appalling.’

The East Renfrewshire MP is right but there is little many customers, especially those in rural areas, can do.