I hate banks.
Me too.
::reads link::
Now I hate them even more.
But profits were down 31%. :rolleyes:
Off to Wal-Mart for these people.
They realigned their business in order to make it more efficient. As such, they don’t need as many people. Are you suggesting that they keep the extra people around in a big auditorium or something, still earning their pay but doing nothing? It’s sad when people lose their jobs, I’ve been layed off twice myself, but get a clue for fuck’s sake.
Haj
It’s not really the bank’s fault–its foremost responsibility is to its shareholders. If it can up profits by firing employees, then that’s what it needs to do.
Bullshit.
With the multi-billion dollar profits that Canadian banks make EVERY QUARTER, they could have people on the payroll standing around in auditoriums. As it is, they reduce service, close branches, and increase service charges at every opportunity.
I’m sure they could. Why the fuck should they?
So find another bank.
Haj
Last week our office had a get-together with the Royal Bank business bankers in town. They were saying that the bank had been very top-heavy (about 250 vice-presidents) with people who really didn’t do that much. They also said that the parachutes for these folks will cover them such that they will not have to work again if the do not want to.
As far as their support staff go, there will not be such a soft landing, but if what a Royal Bank banker from the west coast told me today is true, there is shortage of front line workers (cashiers etc.) out there at the moment, and of course Toronto has an insatiable appetite for good support staff in a wide variety of professions/businesses.
I expect that mid- and lo-level employees in the sticks who are not willing to relocate will be in a bit of a jam.
Maybe, just maybe, the day a bank starts thinking about their customers, stops offshoring jobs, stops consistently laying people off domestically, stops firing incompetent managers while giving them million dollar payouts, and pretty much just stops pulling all the crap they do to make the public majority hate them with the passion of a thousand bushfires, maybe that’s the day people start heading to THAT bank, which in turn might produce even higher profits because of it.
Fucking banks.
There are such banks. I found one in a local credit union–friendly employees, never have to wait more then 30 seconds to speak to a live person on the phone, excellent rates on loans, interest-checking (they pay me more a month on interest on checkings and savings then I paid BofA, when I was with them).
And yet people still go to the big banks.
The market works. 
Could be worse. The CIBC has been squiring out Canadian Tire money out of an automated teller rather than Canadian Tender. Ne shitteth vous pas. http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/12/01/CanadianTire-ATM.041201.html
I keep forgetting the disclaimer for all discussions of Canadian banks - there are about seven banks here (the majority are Canada-wide), and they are all EXACTLY THE SAME. Well, not exactly the same - some have green debit cards, and some have blue ones.
The banks here in Canada are way, way too powerful - from what I’ve heard (from a guy getting his doctorate in Political Science and studying the Canadian banking system), the banks pretty much own the government. The banks are only required to have something like 3% of cash reserves on hand - if we Canadians wanted to screw the banks, we could all go cash out our accounts at the same time. Except the banks wouldn’t let us, and there would be legislation preventing that the next day if it isn’t in place already.
Also, to further muddy these murky waters, I’ve heard that part of the “hit” the banks took last quarter was from trying to bust into the U.S. banking market. I guess they figured they would try to include United Statesians in their institutionalized fleecing. You guys should count your lucky stars that the banks got their fingers burned and will probably leave you alone now. You DO NOT want Canadian-style banking, trust me.
You know if we all quit using ATM’s and credit cards, and go back to what it was like in the good old days, the banks would have no incentive to lay off so many tellers, and they wouldn’t have such big profits.
So what do you say? Should we all cut up our plastic ?
Coming on the steps of their fax SNAFU, I think it is safe to say it has not been a good week for CIBC.
To be fair, the gummint was able to stop those four banks from merging into two, which would have made things even more ‘interesting’ up here.
Yeah, that was interesting - I was very surprised when the government appeared to be flexing its muscles regarding the banks. I suspect there is a lot more to that story than we know. (Paranoid? Me?)
I like your idea, Grienspace.
True enough! How can you possibly compare the interests of lowly tellers and such with the Olympian concerns of stockholders? For shame! For shame!
(This message brought to you by Concerned Americans for Sarcasm)
Because it’s the law, dumbass. Why should any corporation keep around employees whose jobs aren’t needed anymore? People are using ATMs now and banking on-line. What’s the point of having tellers sitting around doing nothing?
I was not aware how bad the banking problems were up there though in that there really isn’t a free market of any kind. Such is the problem with socialized governements. I guess that all you can really do is try to elect some reformers.
Haj
I wouldn’t say there’s no free market – I could easily switch from Royal Bank to Bank of Montreal or CIBC or TD or a credit union… with very little problem other than the normal hassle of switching. And banks are certainly competative in terms of services offered. That whole “free checking account” nonsense you guys have down there? Doesn’t. Exist. because it’s all free chequing.
I think you misunderstand the ire here. This is a bit of a dick move in the sense that they’re complaining about not making as much as they did last year when they’ve been making record profits basically every year for the past 10 years while jacking up service rates. It’s just tough to find a bank that’s not also being a dick. It’s like your shopping choices are WalMart and KMart… and a swift kick in the ass. There’s ING, which is great except for not having any ATMs around. I think there’s like 6 in the whole country. This is the main advantage that the big banks have, in that they are all truly national – I pretty much never have to worry about finding an ATM from my bank if I’m in any size of city in Canada. I honestly wouldn’t trade our system for yours.
But it’s not about the law, peabrain, it’s about ethics and morality, about which the law typically knows nothing. While the people fired may be redundant, that doesn’t mean they deserve less consideration than the executive assholes who are getting golden parachutes at the expense of those shareholders whose boots you would lick if they would only let you.
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