2013年春季高级口译阅读原文解析1

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　　City watchdog blames bonus culture for corrupting bank services

　　says incentive schemes are likely to drive staff to mis-sell, after finding 'serious failings' in study of 22 financial institutions

　　The City watchdog has ordered banks to put an end to their bonus culture, in a report that blames staff incentives for corrupting the services they provide and leading to millions of consumers being missold investments and insurance policies.

　　Many if not all of the recent mis-selling scandals over products including payment protection insurance (PPI), endowments and pensions had come about because of the way companies rewarded sales rather than service, the FSA said.

　　The watchdog investigated the incentive and bonus schemes at 22 financial firms, and uncovered a range of "serious failings".

　　It is understood that the worst were at Lloyds Banking Group, which has been referred to the FSA's enforcement division. This could result in the group, which is 40% owned by the government, facing a fine of billions of pounds. Lloyds has already set aside more than ￡3.5bn to cover compensation payments.

　　Martin Wheatley, the FSA's managing director, said banks used to be a place "where you would go in, stand in a queue and have a pleasant chat with the clerk", but some time ago financial institutions had changed their view of consumers "from someone to serve to someone to sell to".

　　The FSA has ordered firms to drop such sales tactics in favour of schemes that put the customer first, and said bank bosses should "take a real interest in fixing this". If firms failed to comply, the watchdog said, it was prepared to introduce new rules cracking down on bonus schemes that prioritise sales.

　　"What we found is not pretty," Wheatley said. "Most of the incentive schemes we looked at were likely to drive people to mis-sell in order to meet targets and receive a bonus, and these risks were not being properly managed."

　　He said he had ruled out getting rid of incentive schemes altogether, but banks would be expected to properly consider whether their incentive schemes increased the risk of mis-selling.

　　"I want to draw a line in the sand and use the report we are publishing today to set out our expectations," he said. "CEO's are ultimately accountable for the way their staff are incentivised, so we expect them to take a real interest in fixing this."

　　Where a recurring problem was identified, banks would be expected to investigate, take action and pay compensation, the FSA said. In the past, incidents of misselling have often been left to the watchdog and consumer bodies to identify and act upon.

　　Firms have until the end of October to submit their views on the guidance, and Wheatley said he expected them to start to clean up their act immediately.

　　Lloyds would not confirm whether it had been referred to the FSA's enforcement division, but said in a statement that it had made "significant changes" to its incentive schemes since the beginning of the year. It said it had been " working closely with [the FSA], keeping them updated on our progress and to ensure the changes we have made to the schemes are appropriate."

　　Richard Lloyd, the Which? executive director, said that the FSA's findings supported his organisation's view that most banks had incentive schemes that prioritised sales.

　　"This must change. It is clear that the light touch regulation of the past has not worked. We want to see the FSA rigorously enforcing the rules and taking tough action against those banks that continue to let their customers down," he said.

　　Figures released by the banks last week showed that customer complaints soared in the first half of this year, due to increasing numbers of cases relating to the mis-selling of PPI. Lloyds received around 860,000 complaints in the first six months, a 145% increase on a year ago. Complaints to NatWest doubled year-on-year, while those to Barclays rose by 80%.

　　Incentive schemes

　　The FSA found that firms were using a wide range of sales incentive schemes to encourage their staff to part consumers from their cash. These included:

　　? A "first past the post" system whereby the first 21 sales staff to reach a target could earn a "super bonus" of ￡10,000.

　　? Basic salaries for sales staff could move up or down by more than ￡10,000 a year depending on how much they sold.

　　? Sales staff could earn a bonus of 100% of their basic salary for the sale of loans and PPI – if they sold PPI to at least half of their customers.

　　? Advisers were paid commission on products sold over the course of the year. If they reached a series of targets, they could lock in an enhanced commission of up to 35% for the whole of the next year.

　　? One firm excessively incentivised sales of one product type over another, where that product was more profitable. Staff could therefore earn bigger bonuses by selling one particular product, even if it was wrong for the customer.

　　Section 5 第一篇

　　该文选自2012年9月5日英国《卫报》的文章，主要讲述的是英国金融服务监管局(FSA)出重拳整顿英国retail banking行业。监管局在调查中发现，英国金融机构普遍存在“重销售，轻服务”的现象。银行业设计的销售激励机制让销售员赚的彭满钵满，导致了银行理财产品丑闻频现。因此，监管局导致下令银行整改，要求银行必须重拾过去“以服务客户为中心”的服务理念，否则将面临严厉的处罚。其中英国著名的劳埃德银行集团被证实由于问题严重，被移交监管局的执法部门，如调查属实，那么集团将面临数十亿的罚款，以达杀鸡儆猴之效。金融监管局的命令下发后，银行纷纷表示拥护，并开始自我内部审查。

　　主要词汇：

　　l bonus/incentives scheme 激励机制

　　l payment protection insurance, endowments, pensions 这些都是银行业的理财产品针对的方向。

　　l prioritise 优先考虑

　　l enforcement division 执法部门

　　这篇文章沿袭了高口阅读部分针砭时弊、紧跟趋势的特点。由于援引新闻报道，因此文章的脉络采用”倒金字塔”结构，即，文章一开始开门见山，概括主要思想，然后逐层展开，将故事来龙去脉娓娓道来。

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