Barclays Discovers Ethics

Barclays discovers that ethics is not a county near London!

Advice To Bankers

Ethics is not a county just outside of London!

Barclays Purges Thought Crimes

Echoing an Orwellian dictatorship, Barclays is attempting to "cleanse" the minds of its executives of their aggressive money making thoughts.

The Mail reports that Antony Jenkins, the CEO of Barclays, has ordered more than 100 of the bank's most senior executives to attend a two-day re-education event.

The process is designed to cleanse their minds of the aggressive culture instilled by his predecessor Bob Diamond.

The re-education event, to be held in North London, is part of a drive by Jenkins to win back the trust of customers and regulators by making a decisive break with the Diamond era.

The attendees will participate in a series of seminars and bonding exercises aimed at instilling ethical values. The executives will then be expected to act as evangelists for the new culture throughout the organisation. During the two days they will be immersed in sessions including history lessons on the bank’s heritage as a Quaker institution.

They will also be subjected to ‘360 degree feedback’ on their performance, with people both above and below them contributing to their bonus assessments. The process is designed to penalise self-serving or unethical behaviour.

Let's see how that goes then!

"Free" Money - The Great PPI Giveaway

Courtesy of the greed and lack of ethics of our tainted financial services industry, there are billions of pounds to be "given away" by the recalcitrant banks and lending institutions that conned people into buying the now widely derided Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) policies.

Simon Gompertz has published the headline figures:

"The extraordinary scale of the PPI compensation grab:

£5bn compensation still to be paid out

12 million policies may have been mis-sold

800 claims management companies  trying to get a slice of the money

£2m a month being spent on advertising by these claims companies

They charge 25% or more in fees, plus VAT

Banks are making 50,000 compensation payments a week

That's around £400m a month being paid out

The payments average £2,750, some are £16,000 or more

Some say this massive cash payout could give a boost to the economy

How to claim compensation? Contact your bank, or the Financial Ombudsman Service"

Given that the banks showed no ethics in selling these now widely derided products onto their naive customers, there is no shame in asking for them to pay the money back (but don't waste money on using a claims company).