The UK based bank Barclays is selling one of its packaged accounts online despite the terms and conditions being unavailable.
Customers are able to purchase or upgrade to the account before they are able to see the details of the contract.
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Lloyds Banking Group was hit with a record retail fine of £28m this week by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) after the 33% state backed bank was found to be putting staff under intense pressure to sell products customers did not want.
Packaged accounts in the UK came under intense scrutiny from the regulator at the end of 2012 which resulted in Lloyds TSB pulling its bundled accounts from sale in their stores and over the phone from the 1 January 2013.
When asked why the packaged account was still available online when the terms and conditions were not the bank said via Twitter that: "Our colleagues are currently investigating this issue, which we believe to be a recent temporary glitch.
"Terms and conditions are issued to every customer that signs up for one of our Features Store packs."
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By GlobalDataIt is not known how many customer has signed up to the product without being able to read the terms and conditions first.
The self service sales channel via the internet is thought to have been a safe way for banks to make packaged accounts available to customers while avoiding accusations of misleading or aggressive sales practise.
According to Lloyds the reason for removal of their bundled accounts from sale in-store from the 1 January 2013 is that they wish to "harmonise the way we sell bundled accounts across all brands within Lloyds Banking Group, to align the sales process with that currently used within Halifax."
Santander has completely overhauled its bundled account offering, ditching its Rewards Account, which sold for £10, and Premium Account, for £20, in March 2012 in favour of the "simplified" 123 Account.
A December 2012 Which? investigation of more than 500 front line bank staff showed that there is still high pressure to make sales in Lloyds, Barclays, RBS, HSBC and Santander.
Over half (65%) of bank staff in sales roles and have sales targets say there is now more pressure than ever to meet the goals set for them.
The report showed that mis-selling of products is rampant in all of the big five high street banks. Nearly 50% of staff in sales know someone at the bank who has miss-sold a product in order to meet their targets and 40% say their targets encourage employees try and get the sale when it’s not appropriate.
Which? also found that customers are feeling the impact of this pressure-selling environment. Over 40% of customers say the last time they contacted their bank they were offered a new product or service that wasn’t suitable. 25% felt pressurised to take it. Over 30% had to refuse a product or service more than once.
Update:
The terms and conditons are now availble for the packaged account on the site.
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