CaixaBank etics: Should we have taken the television?

A disgruntled CaixaBank client recently put the cat among the pigeons for the formerly most Catalan of Spanish banking groups when, in a move to compensate the client for commissions incorrectly charged to his account - despite having previously guaranteed this client that he would never pay commissions on this account - the office director, Mr. Iván Masip Bes, offered the client’s wife a television set, linked to another new CaixaBank account.

The client, who had simply requested that the commissions, which should never have been charged in the first place as had been agreed years before, be refunded, was surprised that his bank manager had offered this television product to his wife.

CaixaBank was apparently surprised that their client wanted a commission-free account, as had been agreed at the moment of the account’s creation, but apparently just as surprised that the offer of a “free television” might not compensate for their not having lived up to their promises. The client responded that the commissions should be refunded or the account closed as this client does not want or need an account with a bank that does not honour its promises.

Many large companies have ethics departments and indeed La Caixa regularly publishes their own Ethics Code in the public domain. There are a number of iffy considerations here which might well be considered in future versions of any so-called Ethics Code.

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