How does the banker win back their reputation?

'Would you really do that? They could be potential clients,' my father asked with some concern.

This past long weekend I was on holiday with my parents. A wonderful Easter weekend with my brother and son high up in the French Alps — fresh snow, sunshine, a welcome break from my daily branding practice.

Over drinks and dinner we talked about all kinds of things. Including the bizarre developments in the financial sector. My parents had noticed that in my written pieces I occasionally can't resist taking a swipe at the financial world.

'Would you really do that? They could be potential clients,' my father asked with some concern.

Is it wise for a branding consultant to publicly express frustration with the financial sector?

I should say that in my work I always try to be positive and to come with constructive examples and solutions. I want to share my vision and indicate where things need to go, in my view, to make brands, organisations and society a little more beautiful, honest and happy. Bashing the financial sector certainly doesn't fit that approach.

Moreover, in the past I worked with various banks and insurers as clients for many years and dealt with fascinating, complex brand challenges.

For instance, the positioning question for Postbank, when the ambition arose to start selling more complex products like mortgages.

Or the rebranding and brand portfolio challenge when Fortis acquired companies like a.s.r. and Mees Pierson.

I also remember a fine project for ING on how they should position themselves to succeed in private banking. And recently a fairly large assignment for the insurer of SNS Reaal.

Every one of them was a highly instructive brand project, in which I met nothing but interesting and pleasant people.

So why take swipes at the financial sector?

After some self-reflection, I am convinced that fundamental reform of the financial world is urgently needed. In the run-up to the economic crisis, banks and insurers lost sight of their clients' interests. Various perverse incentives caused the bankers themselves to become victims of greed, envy and delusions of grandeur.

Joris Luyendijk describes it all in meticulous detail in his recent book Dit kan niet waar zijn. Onder bankiers.

A few weeks ago I watched with dismay as Gerrit Zalm tried to justify the salary increases for ABN AMRO's top bankers. That can't be true, I thought. Are they actually going to get away with that? Have I lost my mind?

Everyone around me was suddenly talking about it. Widespread dismay. Fortunately, a bomb immediately went off in society and so much anger and unrest arose that the bankers in question thought better of it and declined their hundred-thousand-euro pay rise.

I couldn't help but smile at the press release in which the top bankers declared they had worked 'with heart and soul' to rescue two severely damaged banks (ABN AMRO and Fortis) and prepare them for a stock market listing.

Ironically, the latter is now off the table, given the extent of the reputational damage sustained.

Last night I was entertained again when the chairman of the supervisory board, Rik van Slingelandt, had to answer questions from members of parliament. The whole thing resembled a grand farce — as if it were a well-rehearsed scene from De Verleiders' theatre show Door de bank genomen. The commissioner kept insisting, with a straight face, that it really had been the right decision to award that pay rise.

That can't be true.

Remorse about the unrest in society, but not about the decision itself…

If it is indeed the case that the regulators and top bankers have lost all connection with what lives in society, was there really no one from the communications, PR or marketing department who warned in advance that this would derail the entire stock market listing?

Was there really no one who pointed out the reputational damage this decision would cause?

And there I go again. Even though I genuinely don't want to bash the banks. I actually feel sympathy for the many marketing and communications professionals who work in the financial sector. They do their best every day for the right brand strategy and activation.

I have no doubt that they want to put the client's interests first.

I am convinced that the majority of employees at banks and insurers genuinely care about their customers and are ashamed of their top executives.

I wonder what it will take to bring about the necessary reform. After all, a new generation of bankers will quickly fall into the same patterns of behaviour within a context full of perverse incentives.

How does the banker win back their standing?

Alexander Koene

BR-ND People