mis-sell
missell

So incentives will drive people to mis-sell in order to hit their targets?

We will continue to take tough action against firms and senior management when they mis-sell these high risk products.

However, these 30-odd advisers manage to mis-sell products to almost 2,500 people, and rack up sales worth £285m.

Big energy firms who mis-sell products to customers will have to compensation for the first time

Given a risk-free opportunity to mis-sell a product, or form a cartel, they will grab it.

There is less incentive for a member-owned business to price-gouge or mis-sell.

As one common mis-sell was to add it without asking, you may have it without knowing.

And “if they managed to mis-sell that much insurance then their branch staff can’t be too bad at selling,” notes one industry consultant, waspishly.

These companies are adept at using electrical moisture meters to mis‑sell chemical-injection damp-proofing to unsuspecting clients.

Some firms mis-sell by pressurising the customer into switching phone firm, sometimes by using threatening behaviour.

Ofgem said that, despite the sales practice failures, it found no evidence that the company deliberately set out to mis-sell to customers.

"Energy companies who mis-sell must compensate consumers" say MPs

The bill will grant new powers to consumers to take American-style class action suits against firms that mis-sell pensions, mortgages or other products.

"Ofgem's investigation found no evidence of a strategy by Scottish Power to deliberately mis-sell to customers," the energy regulator said in a statement.

We did mis-sell admits State-backed bank Lloyds

While fines appear to have substantially reduced financial incentives for firms to mis-sell, the complexity of products, sales incentives and company cultures mean the risks remain.

In the Sunday Times in 2012, Tyson showed exactly how much brokers mis-sell investment policies by "churning" the existing business of unsuspecting clients.

Strong consumer activism is needed to teach big corporations if they misbehave or mis-sell to people - "stupid" or otherwise - it will cost them in the end.

However, I am pleased that Ofgem has made it clear that they found no evidence of a strategy by ScottishPower to deliberately mis-sell to customers.

Yesterday Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, said: “The idea that if banks charged more, they would stop trying to mis-sell other financial products is completely unfounded.”

If a customer is able to identify that that process did not happen, that that warning was not explicit, that would count as a mis-sell would it.

Ofgem said it had decided against referring the matter to the police because it had not found evidence SSE had deliberately intended to mis-sell to its customers.

On the much debated topic of free banking for current account customers who remain in credit, he said the tradition was clearly untransparent, unfair and an incentive to mis-sell inappropriate ancillary products.

He carried out a review of banks, building societies, insurers and investment firms which found that “most incentive schemes were likely to drive people to mis-sell and these risks were not being properly managed”.

Banks instructed by one arm of government to lend more to households are being told by another that they will be held corporately liable if they "mis-sell" to those too poor to pay back the money.