Commons committee to hear from banks on upselling scandal

The federal finance committee will start its hearings into the practices of Canada's big banks in Ottawa Monday.

The hearings come in the wake of a series of stories by CBC's Go Public in which bank employees describe being pressured to sell products to customers that they did not necessarily want or need.

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The employees have alleged practices such as pressure to meet increasing sales targets, signing clients up for services without informing them and forging signatures and initials.

The committee is planning three to four days of hearings. The witness list is not complete, but committee chair Wayne Easter, an MP from P.E.I., said he expects to hear from the banks.

Easter said the committee is concerned about both customers and employees.

"It's one thing for an employee to be pressured to sell certain products," he said.

"Is that then transferring into someone who doesn't have a lot of financial knowledge coming into the bank and being sold a bill of goods that might put their financial affairs at risk?"

Easter is not sure what kind action the committee could take on the issue. He said it may be more related to the Canada Labour Code or provincial labour codes.

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