Their Profit . . . Whose Loss?Banks Are Raking in the Profits Through Rationalisation and New Technology but Is the Customer Paying the Price?
Sunday Herald › February 14, 2005
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Summary
HAVE you seen the Little Britain sketch in which a customer asks their disinterested bank clerk, Carol, for a pounds-2000 loan?
Carol nonchalantly types some data into her terminal. After the numbers are crunched she replies: "Computer says no". The customer then tries a range of other options, including requesting a smaller loan and to see the manager. But each time Carol comes back with the same response: "Computer says no."See the full content of this document
Extract
Their Profit . . . Whose Loss?Banks Are Raking in the Profits Through Rationalisation and New Technology but Is the Customer Paying the Price?
The sketch is particularly funny because it is so close to the bone for many viewers. Most could probably say their own experiences of their banks has verged on the depersonalised Kafka-esque experience portrayed in the David Walliams/Matt Lucas spoof.
Yet over the current reporting season the UK's nine listed banks are expected to declare combined pre-tax profits of more than pounds- 34 billion for 2004, almost 25-per cent up on the previous, bumper year. The reporting season kicked off in earnest last Thursday with Barclays, which reported profits up 20-per cent to pounds-4.6bn, and ends with results from Lloyds TSB on March 4.HSBC's profits alone are expected to top the pounds-9.8bn net profit that was announced by Shell earlier this month. Royal Bank of Scotland is not far behind with expected ...See the full content of this document
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