Germany: mass rebellion from banks’ account managers against bill introducing threat of exclusion from public-sector employment

Central register and exclusion from public-sector employment.  Banking social partners have declared war against a new provision the government added to the bill on protection afforded to investors.  The bill will be subject to MPs’ vote on January 27th.  The provision at stake, introduced after a proposal by the Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, provides that the Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) will send fake clients to the banks to spot out account managers who provide their customers with erroneous information.  Even though the law hasn’t been voted yet, the file is quite advanced since the BaFin confirmed that its collaborators were already working on the development of “guides” for the controllers.  The aim is to ensure that banks actually advise their clients based on their interests, not to increase their profit margins.  The bill also mentions the possibility to introduce a central register listing the approximately 300,000 account managers in Germany.  Counselors caught out would immediately be liable and punishable by sanctions ranging from a fine to exclusion from public-sector employment for two years.  The Ministry introduced this measure after testing 21 banks, through the Stiftung Warentest foundation, one of the biggest consumer protection organizations in Germany, revealing the mediocre level of advice given to customers (none passed the test with honors).