Retail bankers want international banking standards

Retail bankers worldwide overwhelmingly support the UK banking standards initiative and want to see international banking standards introduced around the world, in a similar way to international accounting standards.

These are the major findings of an international survey of bankers carried out by Lafferty, the retail banking research house, and the Retail Banking Academy.

Over 80 percent of those surveyed want to see banking standards introduced covering ethical behaviour, the need for banks to have a relationship approach to customers rather than “product-pushing”, the obligation to act in a customer’s best interest, the obligation to access a customer’s overall needs and the necessity of treating customers and colleagues with respect, fairness and transparency.

A clear majority of bankers also believe that retail banking has many of the characteristics of an industry, separate from wholesale banking, that needs its own professional qualification, similar to lawyers and accountants. At the same time, there is very little support among those surveyed for bankers as a whole having a common professional qualification covering retail, corporate and investment banking.

Those surveyed also voted overwhelmingly in favour of an international banking standards body being based in London, with New York and Brussels following a long way behind.

Dick Harryvan, Co-chairman of the Academy commented "We believe the survey responses on the need for retail banking services to be delivered by professionals who are properly qualified are much more in tune with public opinion than might have been expected. These views need to be echoed in banks' management committees and boardrooms where Retail Bankers are often under-represented".

The Retail Banking Academy is the only educational body in the world offering specialised post-graduate training in the retail banking field. It was founded (as the International Academy of Retail Banking) with the objective of playing a leading role in the development and professionalisation of consumer-oriented retail banking across the world. The Academy believes that retail banking should be a recognised profession like accountancy and law.

Lafferty Group is a major provider of knowledge services – from benchmarking research and Councils to professional education – for the financial industry worldwide, with particular specialisations in the field of retail banking and cards and payments. The company’s International Academy of Retail Banking is a global educational and professional body for the retail banking industry and was created in the belief that retail banking should be a profession – like accountancy and law – and offers similar professional education programmes and examinations.

Source: RBA
Date: 14.11.2014 [339]