CBA unveils tougher adviser standards

When will the banks and ASIC get it? It's about a sales culture. Re-training, particularly if it applies just to advisers, cures nothing.

I know a few bank advisers. If left to their own devices, and to be paid a decent salary without sales/points justification, these folks will give good advice.

But the old Tied Office "push push" mentality is still there, now mixed with bank culture of flog, flog, flog-product is king. Follow the bonus trail all the way to the top.

If they haven't started, the banks should go to a fee for advice model on all advice scenarios, with a % of the fee to the advisers - say 65%. Encourage advisers to build a business the bank, and don't look at them as just another talking head flogging their products.

Should be a no brainer. But those management bonuses, based on production, replicating the old tied agent industry some of us experienced, is too ingrained.

Management has snouts in the trough. An easy way of counting those nostrils is to count the management types on the annual conference tour.

Better still, separate product from sales, industry wide.

Where has common sense gone? Bill Brown can see it, in the eyes of a normal person it is not ok to place clients into high risk products without their knowledge or authorization. It is also not ok to blatantly lie to their clients and make false and misleading statements. You don't have to train advisers that it is not ok to do these things. Start on why this is allowed to happen in the first place.