RBS is being asked to urgently explain how a leaked document appeared to contradict claims by its senior management that staff do not have targets to push customers towards online banking.
The Scottish Affairs Committee has written to Ross McEwan, the chief executive of RBS following reports which they feel call into question evidence he gave to the MSPs on Wednesday 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.
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”.
In a letter, committee chairman Pete Wishart calls on Mr McEwan to respond "as a matter of urgency, to clarify this situation and provide an explanation..."
Mr Wishart pointed out that he had asked Mr McEwan during a committee session 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”.
Later in the session Hugh Gaffney MP asked what performance targets had been set for bank branch staff in relation to online banking.
RBS under fire over leaked online banking targets
In response Jane Howard, the personal banking managing director said:: “We talked about this earlier when we said we do not have targets and we removed incentives. I expect our colleagues in the branches to talk to customers about all the ways to bank, and that includes digital.”
An RBS spokesman described the leaked 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."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel