Lloyds staff 'bullied' into hitting high sales targets

by Simon Ward on 11 September 2012  |  12 comments
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A new joint campaign by the Sun newspaper and the Financial Services Authority has prompted stories of "relentless bullying" of staff at Lloyds and other banks.

Lloyds banking staff have blown the whistle on a culture of high pressure sales targets to a national newspaper.

Several current and former employees of the part-nationalised banking group contacted the Sun newspaper after it launched a campaign to name and shame banks forcing staff to deliver sales.

The campaign, dubbed the Great British Bank Tidy, has been launched in partnership with regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The FSA released a report last week criticising the target-driven culture of British banks, which has led to mis-selling of products such as payment protection insurance and packaged current accounts.

One Lloyds worker told the Sun: “My area manager has been told to explain last week’s performance and why bonus earnings have dropped. This is the normal way of life – relentless bullying.”

Another worker from an unnamed bank wrote in an email: “There is a DAILY threat to staff in my area if they do not hit sales numbers. Threatening conference calls, emails, car park chats, you name it, it’s more rife than ever. Until they stop rewarding everyone with bonuses for short-term sales, this problem will never go away.”

Last week, Lloyds’ Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said in a speech: “In recent years the structure of variable pay in banking has focused too much on sales targets. This has had a detrimental impact on behaviour, in part contributing to the problems the industry has experienced with mis-selling.”

However, the culture is rife. A couple of weeks ago, I went to a branch of Halifax just to deposit a cheque and the cashier tried to sell me a packaged current account.

If you have experienced this high-pressure sales culture, either as a member of staff or a customer, you can report the bank to the FSA helpline on 0845 606 1234. The line’s open Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm.

And we’d be very interested to hear your stories, from either side of the fence, in the Comments section below.

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