Questioning of NAB executive Anthony Waldron at the Banking Royal Commission this morning is driving towards the root cause of the problems with Australia’s banking system: remuneration structures, unachievable sales targets and excessive pressure from managers on staff all the way down the line to achieve them.
Mr Waldron told the inquiry the risk and reward equation was “unbalanced in favour of sales.”
He said some bankers were using the system to ensure the outcome was better for them than the customer to “generate greater income for them.”
Finance Sector Union of Australia National Secretary Julia Angrisano said bank workers in branches and call centres across the industry were being pressured and bullied on a daily basis to achieve unrealistic sales targets
“Question for Mr Waldron: how much of his massive salary depends on sales targets being met? And how much pressure does senior management apply to the staff who report to them to achieve those targets?”
“Nothing was more telling today than when asked if the root cause of this misconduct was NABs own remuneration structure, Mr Waldron could only reply ‘yes’.”
Media contact John Hill 0412197079