Bank insurance practises queried

Kirk Hope said many customers would already have insurance when they went to a bank but staff would still take the opportunity to make sure they had the right product set.

“Most banks now work around ensuring that they are not just having a conversation with the customer about one product because if they are, they’re not looking at their entire needs.”                                                                                           

Mike Naylor, of Massey University, said bank tellers were less pushy with insurance than they might have been five years ago, because banks were more wary of regulation.

But he said banks were quite restricted in what they could do with insurance and those that had tried to purchase distribution channels had tended not to do very well.  “Banks have taken the market gaps seriously but I don’t think they are taking the advice angle as seriously. The Government has missed a beat here.”