RBS has come under fire after a leaked document appeared to contradict claims by its senior management that staff do not have targets to push customers towards online banking.
It comes as the bank, which is majority-owned by the taxpayer, continues to come under pressure over its decision to shut 52 branches in Scotland, with a further 10 under threat.
Appearing before a Westminster committee last week, senior RBS management denied that staff had been set targets to drive customers towards digital banking.
SNP MP Pete Wishart asked the bank’s chief executive Ross MsEwan if it is the case “that staff have been set targets in these branches in order to secure these digital customers”.
Mr McEwan replied: “No, it is not right.” He said all incentives had been removed, but staff had been asked to “talk to customers about other ways of banking”.
However a performance review leaked to Scottish Labour, and setting out objectives for 2018, appears to show a target of an average of 5.6 sign-ups a week for the RBS mobile app.
It also insists staff should “help a minimum of 0.6 customers (a week) benefit from the mobile app through logging quality customer interaction”.
Labour MP Ged Killen said it was “quite clear that RBS is not interested in the needs of Scottish customers”.
He said: “At the committee hearing Ross McEwan was very clear that he was closing branches because of choices made by customers.
“However, these performance related targets show that RBS has in fact been manufacturing consent for these branch closures rather than running a customer focused business.”
SNP MSP Kate Forbes said it was “yet another troubling revelation which RBS chiefs have to answer to” and called on the UK Government to get a grip of the bank.
She said: “Just last week they told the Westminster Scottish Affairs committee that the digital banking targets didn’t exist – yet now a leaked document reveals that they do.
“It’s just the latest problem of RBS’s own making – from closing lifeline rural branches, often the last bank in town which they promised not to close, to the recent stealth cuts to mobile banks. RBS are letting down communities across Scotland.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said the leak showed RBS had been “funnelling customers towards online banking all along”.
An RBS spokesman described the document as referring to an objective, not a goal.
He said: "When Ross McEwan was asked about whether staff have targets for the adoption of mobile and online banking, he did not deny this and openly acknowledged that we ask our colleagues to have those conversations with customers so that they are aware of all the different ways that they can bank with us, this includes telephony, face to face and digital banking.
“In 2016, we removed financial incentives for colleagues to hit sales targets - the first of the major banks to do so."
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