I’m a banker

What words spring to mind when you think of bankers? Rich? Greedy? Irresponsible? Culprits of the financial crisis? Barely a week passes when we don’t come across a media story about bankers which reinforces this impression.

Just this week there was a focus on the bonuses of RBS bankers. Unite strongly argued that George Osborne must not rubber stamp the corporate greed at Royal Bank of Scotland. If he looks the other way as the top bankers pat each other on the back and fill their boots, hardworking people across the country will be appalled.

Yet such stories serve to skew the picture of what a typical banker is. The real bankers up and down the country couldn’t be more different from this description. Unite, my union, represents over 120,000 finance employees working in bank branches, call centres and processing centres. Our members are the polar opposite of the caricature bankers we read about every day in our newspapers. Allow me to tell you about those working in financial services who aren’t at the top of this industry, who don’t spend every day counting the millions of pounds they are gambling with:

• Unite’s finance sector members can earn as little as £16,000 per year
• They are 60% female and many work part-time because of their family responsibilities
• They are long serving and very hard working.
• These people are highly trained and focused on the customer service they provide
• They have watched as thousands of their colleagues have lost their jobs as a result of the mismanagement at the top of the banks and face constant uncertainty about their futures.

It is a myth that the vast majority of finance sector workers get massive pay rises and huge bonuses. The majority of bankers do not receive the type of bonuses publicised in the media. Those senior bankers in the City of London that make the eye-watering bonuses distort the average bonuses of all bankers. Unite members who do receive bonuses receive a modest bonus which is not guaranteed and is linked to their performance. So the Governor of The Bank of England, Mark Carney, might be quick to rubbish proposals for reform of the banking industry. But the deafening silence of regulators and policy makers to reform the system is all we are being offered instead.

I make no apology for the banker bashing of those irresponsible individuals who have brought this industry into disrepute. These individuals should never again be allowed to work in the financial services world, they should of course be prosecuted and held to account for the disasters they caused. I merely caution against tarring all of those working in the banking industry with the same brush. Next time you visit your local bank branch or call centre, spare a thought for these bankers who, like all working people up and down the country, continue to struggle to pay everyday bills, with prices still rising at double the rate of wages.

As Ed Miliband prepares his speech on banking tomorrow he needs to champion a diverse banking industry. All bankers are not the same, only through diversity can the financial system offer consumers the finance they need. Co-operatives, mutuals and credit unions are all essential in building the diverse banking sector we have seen eroded over the last decade. This diversity will bring the competition and innovation that drives up standards and service. The coalition pledged its support to banking diversity – yet its actions while in power have done nothing to promote that diversity. The Unite passion for consumer choice and the importance of competition in financial services is demonstrated by the launch last year of the Unite Credit Union Service. This service aims to provide members and their families with access to affordable finance and competitive savings products which they desperately need.

Much polling has shown that there is strong public support for restructuring the industry to improve its ethical approach. The senior bankers must wake up and realise that they have no chance of increasing public trust, or moving away from a perception that they have an unhealthy bonus culture if they don’t change their behaviours.

Remember not all bankers are the bankers we have come to think of them as.

I’m proud of our banking workers.

Rob MacGregor is Unite national officer for banking