Klaas Knot has a (very nice) mortgage with his own bank. But shouldn’t he shop around and see what it’s like for ordinary people, asks Annemarie van Gaal.

Over the last few years, I have been receiving requests for help on a daily basis from people who have been duped in some way by banks or insurers. Often these requests are accompanied by a pile of copies of letters from banking staff or insurance agents in which clients are told their mortgage application has been turned down, their investment-linked insurance is worth exactly nothing or that incapacity benefits are being withheld. All this couched in arrogant and impersonal language.

What these letters have in common is that they hardly ever contain an apology or a solution to the problem. The tone is invariably devoid of any compassion or empathy. I am convinced that the people who write these letters have no idea of their impact on clients. If you haven’t the faintest idea of how a client feels, any attempt to ‘put the client first’ is doomed to failure.

Klaas Knot

That is why I was surprised when I heard that Dutch central bank boss Klaas Knot had taken out a mortgage under the advantageous mortgage scheme for staff. Stranger still, as the banking supervisor he didn’t have a choice: ‘This is in order to avoid any preferential treatment from individual banks keen to favour a Dutch central bank official’. Excuse me? I think we can take it that Knot is honourable enough not to take bribes. What I think is much worse is that Knot is denied the experience of applying for a mortgage like any other client.

It’s like saying that the boss of the food and consumer product safety authority can’t shop in a supermarket of his choice, or that the director of the Consumentenbond can’t pick out his own washing machine and has to go for the cheap deal for staff. It doesn’t make sense and cuts them off from ordinary clients’ experiences.

Staff mortgage schemes

Of course I’m not just talking about Knot et al. I’m talking about all banking and insurance company staff who are profiting from staff mortgages and insurances. These schemes are widening the gap between the financial world and the market and that is very damaging indeed.   

I would argue for doing just the opposite: abolish the schemes and make staff shop around for their mortgages and insurances so they can get some first-hand experience of the financial world, and what it is like to be sent off with a flea in your ear. It would be extremely educational. Putting the client first is one thing but putting yourself in his shoes is quite another.

Annemarie van Gaal is head of publishing company AM Media and a writer and columnist.