Community, Consumers
February 01 2000
by Mike TuffreyCommunity Affairs Briefing has long argued that some social issues are so profound they demand an industry response. Indeed we have gone further and said individual companies will not improve their own corporate reputations while their sector is mired in controversy. Some years ago, the natural resource sector of oil and mining companies was the main bête noire of campaigners. Now it is financial services.
That sector is at the sharp cutting edge of economic restructuring. Call centres spring up where once ship yards and coal mines were the main employers. Branch banks are 'hollowed out' or closed. Hardly a day goes by without news of another take-over or merger. Within Europe, the sector is slowly being liberalised with all the possibilities and pains of greater competition. At a local level, the banks' traditionally important role, with the branch manager as a pillar of the local community, has changed beyond recognition.
None of this can be undone, yet perceptions of financial exclusion must be addressed. For companies in the sector, they must redouble their own individual activities, both on basic products and in community involvement (what fate awaits NatWest's excellent financial literacy programme under Royal Bank of Scotland management?). But crucially, they must also expand the type of industry-wide schemes we report above. For other companies in different industries - supermarket retailers? utilities? pharmaceuticals? - the lesson to learn is that charges of profiteering are easily levelled and hard to rebut if the sector as a whole is perceived to be acting irresponsibly.