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Standard Bank Fire 30 Staff For Padding Their Numbers

30 former Standard Bank staff members recently got fired for fraudulently opening and putting funds into accounts to meet sales targets.

Bank sales staff are always under pressure to make sales and open new accounts for new clients. Covid-19 however put pressure on all organisations and the banks were not immune.

New sales everywhere have slowed down. Fewer people are entering the traditional bank system than in the past and the competition from other digital banks placed some Standard Bank sales staff under pressure. 

‘This was done to earn a commission for reaching targets’

Their solution was to open accounts for people who did not or could not apply and make it look like they had successfully made sales targets. This was done to earn a commission for reaching targets.

More People Under Investigation

Standard Bank has taken action against 30 of the 67 people they are currently investigating (including some managerial staff) and have laid fraud charges.

The sales staff would open a new account and even put some of their own money into the account to make it look active on the system. The new “clients” were often indigent workers or matriculants who (with or without their knowledge) were signed up.

The fraudulent behaviour was revealed by internal Standard Bank auditing and investigations. The bank is always on the lookout for any suspicious activity including internally.