ONE 24-year-old personal banker can pin-point exactly when the sky fell on her: It was the day after investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed.

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I find only the comments of 1 former personal banker, in this article, truthful. She admits that it is tough to resist the temptation to sell products that bring in higher commissions.

She said that "If this product has a multiplier of 12 but my client needs a product which has a multiplier of only three, do I sell him the one he needs and work four times harder?"

Nothing will lust forever!

They can say what they want now..with or against their conscious. Anyway, they have earned their commissions. They would return the commissions right???

This article only shows that the RM themselves do not understand what they are selling so they pass on incorrect information to their clients who trust them to know the products they are recommending.

Now they wonder why we don't trust them ? Duh! If I am taken in the first time, shame on you, if I get taken in the second time, shame on me.

when economy is thrives, RM earns their bucks, so do investors. do investors thank their RMs then?

when crisis comes, investors lose $$, and RMs kena shot.

to summarize: "MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVILS"

I suggest that this personal bank do not cry foul. She is smiling everyday when she is earning lots of $$$. She flirted with a known rapist and got raped so please do not say that she is a victim. What a stupid and irresponsible claim.

Victim or not, it's just sad to see our degree holders given a sales job with fancy titles

Often, it is not easy for outsiders to understand the hardship and difficulties of people in one industry. Whilst I am not in the financial industry, I had in the course of my career, the opportunity of interacting with RMs.

These are ordinary people facing constant pressure from management to meet sales targets, being told to entertain housing agents and serve beer to them, go for showflat launches etc, be at the beck and call of customers. It is a damn hard life. I was telling my colleague, whilst at a function with the bankers and housing agents, "luckily our boss didn't tell us to pour beer for the housing agents!"

At the same time, they are expected by the public to shoulder the blame when customers lose money. Now customers are probably coming in and asking them to explain every page of the 20 or 50++ pages prospectus!! Even lawyers have to struggle to go through every clause every word in such complex documents.

I think one must have fair expectations of the RMs. These are sales people who are expected at the same time to be like lawyers and give advice like lawyers. Is this reasonable to expect of them?

they claim they are also victims. question is before or after the $20,000 commission paid to them. so what is the so-called 'professional financial planner' training for? selling something to someone that does not meet the needs or cause