Banks have been too big for their boots for a long time.
They made massive profits, took huge risks with our money, insisted that business was done on their terms and made it difficult for us to take our custom elsewhere.
We were perhaps spoiled in the old days with the relationships we had with local branch staff and manager who could make informed decisions because he knew who he was dealing with.
In the interests of “efficiency”, however, in recent years branches have been closed and we were offered allegedly better service through a call centre whether we liked it or not.
Local contacts were taken from us, banks saved millions and we were forced to transact how the financial institutions wanted us to, not how we wanted to do business.
In other walks of life, we are able to vote with our feet and influence how service is delivered, but banks are far too big, have far too much control and influence and they have for too long inhabited a world that is too cosy. They quite literally have a licence to print money. It has to stop.
The announcement last week that Lloyds Banking Group (which includes HBOS) and the Royal Bank of Scotland are to sell parts of their businesses to ease European competition concerns must be welcomed, but it does not go far enough.
Consumers need to see real competition in the high street for saving rates, mortgages and loans, investment and insurance products. Ideally, I would like to see banks stick to banking alone because this is a service and facility we all value and there should be enough competition in the marketplace to provide them with a big enough incentive to make them want to attract and retain our business.
We all have the opportunity to vote with our feet and perhaps this is what is required to make the banks sit up and take notice, so don’t be taken in by their sales talk in future and say “no” to their expensive and potentially inferior insurance and investment products that they try to bundle in. Shop around and, if the European authorities exert their influence from the top down, perhaps individually we can make a difference from the bottom up.
Gordon Wilson is managing director of financial adviser Thomson Shepherd. He can be contacted on 01224 619215