Mystery Shopping

Annex

REPORT OF MYSTERY SHOPPING

PROGRAMME FOR COMPLIANCE WITH

THE CODE OF BANKING PRACTICE

INDUSTRY REPORT

May 2012

CONFIDENTIAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.

Executive Summary ………………………

II.

Programme Introduction ...………………..

4

•

Objectives ………………………………...

4

•

Methodology ……………………………...

4

•

Coverage ……………………………….....

4

Observations ………………………………

5-10

•

General ………………………………...…..

5

•

Savings Accounts ……………………….

5-6

•

Unsecured Personal Loans …………….......

6-8

•

Credit Cards ……………………………….

8-10

IV.

Way Forward ………………………………

10

Appendix 1

Sections of the Code of Banking Practice

Covered by the Mystery Shopping

Programme ………………………………...

11

Summary of the Results of the Mystery

Shopping Programme ……………………..

12-16

III.

Appendix 2

Industry Report

Page 2-3

1

CONFIDENTIAL

I.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) introduced a “mystery

shopping programme” (MSP) as one of the measures to facilitate the

monitoring of authorised institutions’ (AIs) compliance with the Code of

Banking Practice (the Code) in 2010. The Hong Kong Productivity Council

(HKPC) was engaged by the HKMA to conduct the mystery shopping exercise

(the exercise). This report sets out the observations of the exercise.

2.

The exercise was performed from September to October 2010. During this

period, 1,195 samples1 were conducted on 21 AIs with retail banking business.

Three types of banking services that AIs offered to personal customers were

covered in the exercise, namely, savings accounts, unsecured personal loans

and credit cards.

3.

The exercise focused on the availability of relevant information to the

shoppers 2 during the sale process. Key observations of the exercise were

summarized as follow:

•

All shoppers found that the sales representatives explained the features of

the banking services in a factual and...