BL Premium reports that the Financial Services Tribunal has dismissed applications by former employees of Standard Bank to have their debarment from working in financial services reconsidered, finding they had acted dishonestly.

The ruling follows the so-called MyMo debacle last year, that led Standard Bank charging many of its staff with gross misconduct and dishonesty. The applicants had been tasked with selling MyMo accounts. To count as a sale, the account had to be opened by an employee upon a client’s request. The account was then “activated” by the client with a money deposit into the account. Once an account was activated, it would count as a “sale” towards the employee’s sales target. All the applicants bar one admitted they activated MyMo accounts with their own money, which were then recorded as a “sale”. According to Standard Bank, this constituted gross misconduct and acts of dishonesty, which warranted the applicants being debarred from a position that requires trust and honesty. The applicants argued many grounds to challenge their debarment. The tribunal found as follows: “They deliberately and knowingly provided false or misleading information to the bank, without any belief that it could be true. When they irregularly activated the ‘MyMo accounts’ they knew that they were perpetuating an untruth and false circumstance by creating an impression that the ‘MyMo account’ holder had activated their accounts.” The tribunal held that the applicants “cannot be trusted to perform their duties with honesty and integrity”.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tauriq Moosa at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

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