The New City Agenda thinktank has published research that suggests banking misconduct has cost UK banks £53 billion. The conclusion is that an aggressive sales culture has contributed to bad practices with the PPI scandal alone running up a massive £37.3bn in fines, compensation and legal fees.
What Are The Consequences of ‘Bad’ Banking?
The media is continually bringing to light and discussing the consequences for customers. The consequences for banks themselves are less clear. On the one hand some banks are undergoing restructuring. On the other there remains pressure for them to fully come clean about their practices.
Stuck in the middle of all this are financial professionals employed by banks but increasingly facing up to redundancy.
Martin Byrne, head of , and well experienced in the financial sector, advises, “It is a time of great uncertainty if you’re in banking. Some people are baying for blood. Meanwhile, banks are cutting back on their operations, with redundancies looming”.
However, Martin does not see this as being necessarily gloomy. While major banks recently announced job cuts, he understands there have to be services to fill the gaps opening up in what the banks can provide.
Financial services will always have an audience. What is changing is the way this audience receives its information. The big banks’ switch of emphasis away from certain areas, and their cutting back, allows for the growth of more niche financial services.
Martin’s area of expertise is in providing insurance packages tailored for businesses. He sees the fallout from the banking crisis, and the banks’ own consolidation of their operations, as having enormous potential for companies like Business Protect.
“For experienced financial professionals, the work is out there”, Martin states. “There are plenty of opportunities for financial services professionals, but this requires them to recalibrate their thinking a little. Similarly, for the customer, there’s going to be a lot more choice when it comes to financial services. Instead of the one-stop shop, big bank model, they now have a kind of boutique environment”.
“All business evolves, just as the wider culture it is a part of evolves”, Martin concludes. “Banking may seem too monolithic for some but the one thing the banking crisis has created, however inadvertently, is opportunity”.
If you would like to find out about Business Protect’s career opportunities, please call them on 0161 9562470 or visit their .
