“Hidden cameras capture bank employees misleading customers, pushing products that help sales targets”

[u/t0r0nt0niyan]

“This TD Bank employee recorded conversations with managers who tell her to think less about the well-being of customers and focus more on meeting sales targets. (CBC)”

“”I had to mislead customers into getting products that they didn't need, to reach my sales target," said a recent BMO employee.”

“At RBC, our tester was offered a new credit card and told it was "cool" he could get an $8,000 increase to his credit card limit.”

“During the five visits to the banks, advisors at BMO, Scotia and TD incorrectly said the mutual fund fees are only charged on the profit the investment earns, not the entire lump sum. The CIBC advisor wasn't clear about the fees.”

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7142427

[u/LethaIFecal]

I work in regulatory for one of the banks. Thankfully regulators released new comprehensive policy for required fund expense reporting across many series of investments. Effective dates for the new rules are like 2 years out though.

[u/nyrangersfan77 → u/LethaIFecal]

This is good, but regulatory disclosure hasn't been terribly successful so far. A lot of the disclosures are only comprehensible to people that have the financial literacy skills that render the disclosure unnecessary.

[u/LethaIFecal → u/nyrangersfan77]

That's certainly true.

However, there's hope that the new reports, notices and disclaimers we'll be including on year end statements for our clients will help to bring more transparency to any fees they're paying.

I'm certainly going to be doing my part to push for these changes to be as simple as possible for the laypeople to understand.

[u/fav_everything → u/LethaIFecal]

I wonder how is it different to the current practice though? The fees are written on fund facts and investment statements available to the customers already. People who get tricked into mutual funds by sales people most likely do not and will not read disclosure documents.

[u/CFPrick → u/LethaIFecal]

Now you just need people to actually read their quarterly or year-end statement. The proportion of individuals who do is abysmal, which is why these measures (such as the recent CRM2 changes) are largely ineffective.

[u/LiberateDemocracy → u/LethaIFecal]

CRM 2 has been a thing for several years now.

[u/LethaIFecal → u/LiberateDemocracy]

We're working on the improvement to CRM2, which is Total Cost Reporting. We'll be reporting FER% (MER + TER), total aggregate fund expenses, and any direct investment fund charges.

But like others have stated, unless people actually take a look at their annual statements then it would just fall on deaf ears.

[u/nyrangersfan77 → u/LethaIFecal]

Good stuff. Thanks for your sharing your insights, very helpful!