66
Knowing what you sell
All the surveyed institutions train their sales
staff on their range of products. 72% of the
sector (11 out of the 19 institutions surveyed)
also train staff in the prevention of an exces-
sive debt burden, and 37% (3 out of the 19 in-
stitutions surveyed) offer training sessions to
assess the mental capacity of customers when
they take a financial decision. 60% (6 out of
the 19 institutions surveyed) of them provide
training sessions about sustainable products,
such as socially responsible investments or
green loans.
Febelfin Academy, the training institute of the
financial sector, has a course on offer that fo-
cuses on ethics in sales techniques: “How to
build a sustainable relationship of trust with
your customers in the new financial world?”
Remuneration depending
on sales
In the past, a number of financial institutions
stimulated the sale of investment products
with remuneration for the sellers. The finan-
cial crisis has forced the institutions to go
back to basics and placed the focus on saving
deposits again. However, there are still invest-
ment products backed by a sales strategy.
97% (17
out of the 19 institutions surveyed)
pay their sales staff a variable remuneration.
The proportion of this variable remuneration
in relation to the total salary depends on the
employee’s position. For someone working
within the Retail department, in 87% of cases
(6
out of the 17 institutions surveyed) the vari-
able part of the salary will be less than 10% and
in 4% (5 out of the 17 institutions surveyed)
between 10 and 25%. When an employee of
the Trading department receives a variable
salary, in 22% of cases (5 out of the 17 institu-
tions surveyed) this will be less than 25% of
his total salary package. In 70% (5 out of the
17
institutions surveyed) of the cases the vari-
able portion amounts to between 25 and 75%
of the total package. One surveyed institution
indicated that the variable salary could be as
high as 150%.
A variable salary is mainly defined by the P&L
(
profit and loss account
)
of the bank. This does
not mean, however, that social aspects, such
“
Loyal, fair and professional
treatment of clients is essential
to restore trust in the sector.”
Jean-Paul Servais, FSMA, September 2012
3.
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GOOD GOVERNANCE