Professor Philip Lane:

There is the observation that banks across the advanced economies in Europe have essentially repeatedly shown themselves through various conduct scandals not to be serving consumers. There is a legislative process and there are all sorts of European regulations and directives to try to improve the way financial services are provided to consumers. That is led by the European Parliament, the Commission and national frameworks. That is an ongoing trend to try to bring about improvement. They are called financial services but are they providing services to consumers and small businesses?

Year by year and all the time there are efforts to improve the framework under which these banks operate. The legislative process, including directives and regulations, is ongoing in trying to improve this. In the US, under the previous administration, there was a big push to elevate consumer protection. Within our bank we have a dedicated financial conduct pillar and we have been very active in developing our consumer protection framework. There is much there to try to hold banks to account in terms of putting the consumer first. This examination is a crucible, and it is critical as it goes beyond the narrow legal interpretation of various contracts and paperwork. It goes back to what we can do and what the public spotlight can do in convincing the boards of these banks that the right action is to solve this once and for all, draw a line under it and focus on delivering a better job in future.