Australians love to bash the banks. Every time we read about their latest profit spike we can feel the blood rush to our head just before we explode with renewed invective.

So, when I read the following article it got me wondering whether or not we might be a little too harsh in our criticism. It’s really all about how they treat their customers and how they perceive themselves. Do the banks really think they treat their customers well? How can they find out the truth?

 Banks ignore consumer pain.

David Leermakers | Australian Financial Review | November 14, 2011

It seems like almost every day someone from the banking industry is bellyaching about the pace of banking and credit reform, why all this regulation is pointless and why we should feel sorry for them. So I wasn’t surprised to read that the Australian Bankers Association still refuses to believe that these reforms have been provoked by real problems with the way banks do business. How is it possible for the bank chiefs to think that fees are readily accepted by their customers? Where else will you find a seller of any product tacking on a raft of fees after you have bought their product? Here’s your ice cream sir, hope you enjoy it….by the way there’s an extra 20 cents a month for the next 6 months charged to your credit card so we can continue to bring you the best flavours.

Then you see a series of advertisements showing how much they care for you because they live in your world or they are determined to be different, when we all know they couldn’t give a rats!

Is it really a surprise to them when we tell them we still think they stink?

The article continues:

 Reforms on mortgage exit fees, unsolicited credit limit increase offers and key facts sheets respond to longstanding issues that consumers have been making noise about for years. The typical response from the banks has been to deny that there is a problem. But even if there is, it can’t be fixed because of the “cost”, much of which is never substantiated. It seems to us as a consumer watchdog that if banks had responded when concerns were originally raised that the tick and flick credit limit increase offers cause consumer detriment, or that mortgage exit fees and incomprehensible product disclosure stifle competition, these problems could have been addressed without government intervention and at a pace the banks find more agreeable.

What I think is finally happening is that regulations are bringing the banks screaming and struggling in touch with what the entire community has known for decades.

Banks will finally have to understand that they are not able to rely on their exclusive right to peddle money. They must treat their customers with respect and dignity and realise they must win the trust and loyalty of their customers and not simply talk about it.

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