Mr. Shane Kavanagh:

I will give the committee a real-life example and I will not use names. There was one situation where we were supervised to make sure we were actively selling. If a client had a lump sum investment but very much wanted his or her money kept safe, we were actively told to try to get some of that money into a protected bond. In the sale of protected bonds, with the word "protected" one would assume that the money is protected. The small print, however, indicates that the money is only protected after five years. If the person wants the money before that date, then it is not protected. We were given instructions to make sure our paperwork was right. The paperwork included a freetext box, which is the piece we put in, where the wording was inserted in such a way that "you" decided. This is even though I tell a person to put his or her money into the product, and the person trusts me because he or she always has dealt with me. They may say that Shane was a nice fellow, that they trusted him and that they would do whatever he said. Some customers were like that; they trusted one. While I do not state that people did this, the opportunity was there to do it because people were under pressure to get their sales. They might put somebody into one of these products and the forms stated that "you" chose it and " you" were made aware of the charges and have been told that after five years, the capital is protected etc. That part of the paperwork is in the freetext box but this is manipulation. If the client decides suddenly, two or three years down the road that he or she did not want that and goes to the financial services ombudsman, the ombudsman will then look for a copy of the paperwork, where everything will be in favour of the bank. I felt it was very underhanded and so did the rest of the agents. When we queried it we were basically thrown out.