Will the banking commission build banks we can trust?

No chance and certainly not if we follow the example of European banks

Well, this coupled with IFAs seemingly becoming an endangered species I do honestly wonder if the sole aim of the banks is to turn society into impoverished debtors. It is getting really hard to get good advice these days.

The Banking Commission is purely a political window-dressing exercise to satisfy Mr Cable and the Lib-Dems.

On major competition issues power no longer resides in the UK but with the European Competition authorities.

Who ordered the sale of RBS English bank branches? - The EU Commission.

Who is demanding that Lloyds is broken up on the Retail side - in spite of the UK's then Prime Minister's clearance of the HBOS purchase? The European Commission and Competition Authorities.

If Mr Osborne is serious about cost cutting, he should recognise the reality of European power, undesirable as it may be, and cancel this time-wasting and expensive exercise.

Overall our society has been and continues to be controlled by legislation. Legislation only creates employment for legislators and those skilled in the dissemination and manipulation of such legislation.

As a business a bank will seek to return profits on its activities. This is not unreasonable- who goes to work for any other reason? Why not keep it simple and insist that bonuses for those in charge be based on 10 year moving averages.

If the bank of England cant detect illegal behaviour in this time its not very good and as far as Joe Bloggs is concerned the reality is always going to be "buyer beware".

More legislation- what we need is Vlad the impaller!

My experience with financial advice from Banks is “not good”. The staff are (a) superficially trained at best and (b) driven by sales goals. This backdrop leads to many, but not all, so called advisors having the morals and ethics of the alien race known as Ferengi. For non-Trekkies substitute “Wharf Rats” for “Ferengi” and you will get my drift.

Such behaviour at street level is inevitable within a culture where the primary driver is "what's in it for me" rather than "how can I provide good advice to my customer even if it means I'll loose my commission or fail to meet my sales targets".

You can’t legislate to force people to behave Ethically … Business Ethics is a value that has to instilled in the corporate body and driven from the top of the company management, BY EXAMPLE, through every level of the company right down to the lowest paid employee.

Removing financial incentives which pro-actively encourage employees to behave unethically is one way to resolve the problem but such action is likely to reduce profits so I can’t see it happening in my lifetime.

re Ethics of Financial Institutions.

Here is an example.

Direct Debit not cancelled continues for ever.

Had a Eurocheque book with the Coop Bank.

They advised me that the service was being cancelled.

I had forgotten that there was a DD on this service, in any case I though it would have been cancelled as there was no service to pay for.

A number of yeas later going through the DD¨s I discovered this strange sum going through which I could not identify.

Checked with the bank, and was advised it was for non-existent Eurocheques.

After lenghty correspondence Customer Services offered to go back five years with a refund, but not before that.

And this is with a bank that prides itself on being "ethical"

I would not trust banks and financial institutions with my walllet.

Developing further the abuse of Direct Debits.

Direct Debits contiue ad infinitum unless cancelled.

If you have a contract for anything, beware. It does not expire at the end of the agreed period but also continues ad infinitum, unless you cancel it.

If you do not cancel it, you are consenting to its further continuance.

I think regulations should automatically end DD´s after the agreed contractual period, rather than have them continue even though what you are paying for does not exist.