Integrity in business
Two items in the press in the last week raise an interesting question mark against big business in this country.
The big Banks (who else) have been taken to task by the Office of Fair Trading on the issue of insurance relating to repayment of loans which most banks insist on.
The trading standards people say the insurance cover is not worth the paper it is written on. Now the whole issue of loan protection is being investigated and about time too.
Buy any item of electrical or photographic goods of 拢200 or over and the shop assistant will have your arm up your back to get you to take out insurance. The market in this type of cover is 拢5.5 billion pounds and I imagine that is yearly. And banks are the industry who have just been caned for over the top and in most cases illegal bank charges.
The second case relates to price fixing in which three firms could be fined 拢26 million pounds for the afore mentioned offences.
All of these firms could be called pillars of the retailing and finance world when in reality they have a side to how they make profits that they would prefer not to be made public.
It would be interesting to know how many others are at it.
transparency is a good thing