Why do we hate banks?

10 March - Natal Witness

Though there is reason for concern at the number of complaints against banks, they are moving in the right direction, says banking ombudsman Neville Melville.

He told the Cape Town Press Club yesterday that in judging banks' performance, one has to look at the bigger picture.

He does not know how many "trillion" banking transactions are conducted every day, and though the 14 000 queries a year to his office seem a lot, he does not know what percentage of actual errors that represents.

Those boil down to about 3 000 "entrenched disputes" a year, of which just over half are resolved in favour of the consumer.

Although the number is increasing, banks are also resolving more complaints internally because it is an embarrassment for them to have to go through the ombudsman process.

"But certainly they could be more careful; they shouldn't be making as many errors. Not as many should come through to us.

"We do believe they should be sorting out more still, certainly compared to what we've benchmarked overseas, for instance.

"There is an area for concern, but we believe it's moving in the right direction."

Asked why people feel angry about banks in South Africa, he said he has done his own research on the internet.

"I put in the words "hate banks" in Google and got about three million responses, one of which was people hate banks because banks hate people," he says, laughing.

Part of the problem is the high fees charged by banks, which in many sectors are not seen as value for the services provided.