Ethical standards in client service

[GRI 103-1], [GRI 103-2], [GRI 103-3], [GRI FS15] Activities concerning ethical sales place strong emphasis on service being compliant with the regulatory requirements and fulfilling the following assumptions:

• Tools and guidelines in call scripts focused on giving clients the best possible service by conveying full and precise information on various products and processes;
• Call scripts refer to the necessity of vetting client needs and analyzing products in terms of their expectations and circumstances;
• Assumptions and tools concerning product models are subject to verification by the compliance unit.

Implementing sales standards in sales units (including ethical sales) is achieved under the following: preliminary training, e-learning training and post-implementation activities by the persons and units appointed to do that (including bosses).

The guidelines set forth in the Book of Client Service Standards obligate employees to do the following in particular: analyze client needs, present the Bank’s offering clearly, discuss the rules on how the product works, present cost information, diagnose client doubts, provide explanations and ultimately – confirm that the rules on how the product works are comprehensible to the client prior to signing an agreement.

At the Bank Millennium Group, ethical sale of products is regulated not only in such guidelines as the Code of Ethics, Book of Standards or other internal procedures. Attaching great importance to quality and a high level of ethics in sales, the Bank also prepared Client Call Scripts about daily banking products, credit products and savings and investment solutions. These scripts have been in operation for several years and are updated and optimized successively. Each implementation of a new script involves a mass implementation of the solution among direct customer service employees and training sessions. All the changes made to the scripts centre on ensuring complete transparency in terms of the information provided and client education so that they can benefit from the services offered by the Bank with full awareness.

Compliance with the Scripts and Client Service Standards is constantly monitored by a unit specially set up for this purpose, while the results are conveyed to the Bank’s Management Board and the direct superiors of the employees subject to evaluation and are used to take remedial efforts across the Bank. Compliance with sales standards and ethics is also monitored independently of the Bank by using various types of service quality rankings. The Bank attaches great importance to them and takes into account all the conclusions drawn from them.

In terms of insurance products, the Bank employs standards consistent with the guidelines set forth in Recommendation U concerning best practices in bancassurance and the Insurance Distribution Act.

Companies have distinct regulations regarding ethical sales. Millennium Dom Maklerski has implemented a number of documents governing the rules of conduct to maintain due diligence in client contacts. The most important ones are as follows: the rules and regulations for rendering brokerage services, contracts executed with clients and the “Policy of executing orders and acting in accordance with the best interest of the Client in Millennium Dom Maklerski S.A.”

Bank Millennium offers a debt consolidation loan with an option to pay down debt in other banks to clients who are looking for an opportunity to reduce the costs of servicing their current liabilities. In addition, clients may take advantage of a deferred payment of one instalment of a cash or consolidation loan (credit holidays), which represents important help in a case in which the funds designated for an instalment in a given month must be used for other purposes.

If a loan is not repaid, the Bank first seeks an amicable settlement of the matter, offering the client the opportunity to enter into restructuring agreements.

The debt restructuring offered by the Bank in the process of pursuing receivables involves the execution with the client of an annex to the original agreement (in a traditional form in a Bank outlet or through electronic contact channels) or a separate restructuring agreement whose content modifies the binding debt repayment terms in accordance with the client’s standing and financial capabilities.

The receivables are restructured and collected by organizational units in the Bank that have been established especially for this purpose. There are separate units dealing with receivables from corporate and retail clients (including Biznes clients, too) based on internal (instructions and guidelines) and external regulations.

The process of pursuing receivables from retail clients is conducted while using a supporting IT system linked to the Bank’s operating system and the credit card administrative system making it possible to identify receivables at risk, verify and monitor them, archive actions, progress and the outcomes of collection, dispatch key correspondence and report and manage various receivables.