I have never been a credit union member, but I recently saw a billboard outside a local Meridian that was advertising below-market mortgage rates along with above-market dividend yields, with the clear implication that one could borrow to ‘invest’ for the spread. Intrigued, I went in to ask about their offering, and was surprised (silly of me) to meet a ‘financial adviser’ who was happy to tell me about the credit union’s promotional rates and ‘end to end offering of wealth management manglement products‘. Apparently, being a credit union, rather than a bank, is no assurance of impartial advice or duty of care to the clients.
It reminded me that the financial sales culture has been so enabled and grotesquely profitable for its perpetrators this past decade, their focus on scale and insatiable growth have become taught and emulated far and wide. I was therefore not surprised this morning to read CBC’s latest report in its ongoing expose of the finance sector in Canada. See: Credit union employees say high-pressure sales tactics turn ‘members’ into ‘marks’.
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