

To curb mis-selling, RBI should get banks to reward customer-orientation
Agents and employees representing banks and non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) have been known to frequently push inappropriate products on hapless customers in their zeal to boost sales and rake in the commissions that come with them. A senior citizen is encouraged to purchase a risky market-linked product such as a unit-linked insurance plan (ULIP) instead of a safe fixed-income instrument offering steady returns.
Or a homemaker purchases a mixer-grinder with EMIs, only to find she has also been signed up for an expensive credit card that never showed up but was nevertheless impossible to cancel. These dodgy methods, which can be deceptive or misleading, are not necessarily fraudulent if the customer’s consent was obtained.
In a renewed effort to curb this menace, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently issued draft amendments to its Responsible Business Conduct Regulations applicable to banks, NBFCs and other financial institutions. The amendments cover advertising, marketing and sales of financial products and services by these institutions, either by their own staff or through direct sales or marketing agents.
The proposed amendments stipulate that banks and NBFCs must have policies in place to ensure that their incentives do not encourage staff to push sales by resorting to mis-selling. They also propose that banks must have a policy to compensate customers in the event of mis-selling.
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