NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business / Companies / Banking and finance

Aussie bank worker lifts lid on 'ruthless' tactics

news.com.au
21 May, 2018 01:57 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Autoplay in
5
Disable Autoplay
Cancel Video
A former bank teller has given interview to 60 minutes revealing the toxic culture in the banking sector. Source - Facebook/60 Minutes Australia

A former Commonwealth Bank worker has lifted the lid on the "ruthless" tactics used by banks to prey upon vulnerable customers.

In a 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday night, the whistleblower said staff were under intense pressure to sell products to customers, even those they suspected couldn't afford them, which contributed to a toxic workplace environment that forced her to end her career.

It comes as a banking royal commission unearths misconduct in the industry, including Commonwealth Bank advisers charging dead clients for financial advice, as well as providing loans to clients who were clearly unable to afford repayments.

The former staffer named Catherine, who began working with the Commonwealth Bank as a teller more than 30 years ago, told 60 Minutes she had seen the bank move its focus away from the customer and towards "pushing products" and sales.

"Every customer that goes through the door, every customer that you serve, you are expected to see what products they have with you," Catherine said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"You get to the stage where you see them come through the door and you think, 'Oh, what am I going to get out of this customer?'

"It makes me feel a little bit grubby. It's like we've all been tainted with this really bad taste. It's taken away the integrity."

Catherine described how staff were put under pressure to push products onto consumers to meet strict targets.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"A manager may get told, 'You need to have 20 home loans a week'," she said.

"Well, that means if you've got five staff, those five staff need to get four home loans each for the week. And so, Thursday comes around. If you haven't got them ... Friday can become a really, really hard day.

"There's some really ruthless staff that will get customers to increase credit cards, or do stuff. On paper they [the customers] may be able to afford it, but in reality you know that perhaps they can't."

You get to the stage where you see them come through the door and you think, 'Oh, what am I going to get out of this customer?'

Julia Angrisano, the national secretary of the Finance Sector Union, said bank workers had reported being forced to act in ways that made them feel "uncomfortable".

Discover more

Business

BNZ rings in changes to leadership team

16 May 12:54 AM
Business

Constantly checking your KiwiSaver could cost you $600K

17 May 05:00 PM
Banking and finance

Bank swamped by 'unprecedented increase' in credit card frauds

20 May 08:12 PM
Banking and finance

Our banks are not above reproach

20 May 05:00 PM

"It was not uncommon for our members to tell us that their managers would expect them to peer over the counter and have a look inside the customer's wallet as they'd open up to have a look whether or not perhaps that customer had a credit card from one of its competitors," she said.

"We have many, many instances of members who tell us that they are so stressed before they go to work that they have to psych themselves up, and they're in their cars, crying, knowing what's about to happen when they walk through the door."

The banking royal commission has heard from bank customers who said they were on the brink of financial ruin after being pressured to take out loans, buy credit cards or take out insurance they didn't want or need, and struggled to meet repayments.

Katherine Temple, Senior Policy Officer for the Consumer Action Law Centre in Melbourne, told 60 Minutes the trouble some customers ended up in was "scary".

"A lot of people were in a lot of distress because they're loaded up with debt that they can't afford, and a lot of the times they never could afford," she said.

But Temple said people who struggled financially were actually very lucrative to banks.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"They are the ones who tend to pay the most interest, in late fees, in charges," she said.

"So there is an incentive there, I think, to provide loans to people who are living on the edge."

Another dodgy tactic revealed by 60 Minutes was banks forcing staff to sign deeds of non-disparagement before they left, which stopped them from speaking critically about their former workplaces.

Angrisano said the deed was valid "for life".

"Our view is certainly, about those deeds, is that it's just another form of control: 'We control you when you worked for us and now we're gonna control you once you even leave us'," she said.

The program aired after the Commonwealth Bank was forced to apologise for a Dollarmite scam that was unearthed by a Fairfax investigation.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The investigation revealed staff were depositing small amounts into children's Dollarmite accounts in order to make them appear active, in attempts to gain performance bonuses.

The Commonwealth Bank banned the practice after it was uncovered in 2013, the bank's chief executive Matt Comyn said.

"When customers open an account, they put their trust in us and that's particularly true when the account holder is a child," he said.

"There is now a line in the sand and we have zero tolerance for behaviour such as this, irrespective of whether there is customer harm."

Comyn said no "financial harm" came to the customers affected.

The next round of hearings of the banking royal commission, which starts today, is expected to hear from small business owners who were wronged by banks.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Banking and finance

Interest rates

Final big bank drops home loan rates after OCR cut

12 Jun 05:52 AM
Agribusiness

ASB offers $150,000 interest-free loans for farm solar systems

09 Jun 11:51 PM
Premium
Property

New, never-lived-in Auckland apartment project up for mortgagee sale

09 Jun 04:00 AM

It was just a stopover – 18 months later, they call it home

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Recommended for you
Estate agent Yanfei Bao's killer booted from courtroom after angry outbursts
New Zealand

Estate agent Yanfei Bao's killer booted from courtroom after angry outbursts

12 Jun 11:59 PM
Miracle of seat 11A: The sole survivor in Air India tragedy
World

Miracle of seat 11A: The sole survivor in Air India tragedy

12 Jun 11:31 PM
Hit-and-run accused banned from CBD after incident near night market
Rotorua Daily Post

Hit-and-run accused banned from CBD after incident near night market

12 Jun 11:30 PM
Violent home invasion leaves two seriously injured in East Tamaki, one arrested
New Zealand

Violent home invasion leaves two seriously injured in East Tamaki, one arrested

12 Jun 11:26 PM
Divers remove 130,000 sea urchins to protect marine reserve
Northern Advocate

Divers remove 130,000 sea urchins to protect marine reserve

12 Jun 11:09 PM

Latest from Banking and finance

Final big bank drops home loan rates after OCR cut

Final big bank drops home loan rates after OCR cut

12 Jun 05:52 AM

Westpac announced changes to its six-month and one-year rates today.

ASB offers $150,000 interest-free loans for farm solar systems

ASB offers $150,000 interest-free loans for farm solar systems

09 Jun 11:51 PM
Premium
New, never-lived-in Auckland apartment project up for mortgagee sale

New, never-lived-in Auckland apartment project up for mortgagee sale

09 Jun 04:00 AM
Another major bank cuts mortgage and deposit rates in NZ

Another major bank cuts mortgage and deposit rates in NZ

08 Jun 11:21 PM
The woman behind NZ’s first PAK’nSAVE
sponsored

The woman behind NZ’s first PAK’nSAVE

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search