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Misselling (financial) products: The limits for internal compliance

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  • Inderst, Roman

Abstract

This paper considers a firm that has to delegate to an agent, such as a mortgage broker or a security dealer, the twin tasks of approaching and advising customers. The main contractual restriction, in particular in light of related research in Inderst and Ottaviani (2007), is that the firm can only compensate the agent through commissions. This standard contracting restriction has the following key implications. First, the firm can only ensure internal compliance to a standard of sales, in terms of advice for the customer, if this standard is not too high. Second, if this is still feasible, then a higher standard is associated with higher, instead of lower, sales commissions. Third, once the limit for internal compliance is approached, tougher regulation and prosecution of misselling have (almost) no effect on the prevailing standard. Besides having practical implications, in particular on how to (re-)regulate the sale of financial products, the novel model, which embeds a problem of advice into a framework with repeated interactions, may also be of separate interest for future work on sales force compensation.

Suggested Citation

  • Inderst, Roman, 2009. "Misselling (financial) products: The limits for internal compliance," IMFS Working Paper Series 35, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:imfswp:35
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Utz Weitzel & Michael Kirchler, 2021. "The Banker's Oath And Financial Advice," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 21-032/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Mietzner, Mark & Molterer, Manuel, 2018. "You might not get what you need: The discrepancy between financial advice and commissions in Germany," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 167-170.
    3. Beyer, Max & de Meza, David & Reyniers, Diane, 2013. "Do financial advisor commissions distort client choice?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 117-119.
    4. Weitzel, Utz & Kirchler, Michael, 2023. "The Banker’s oath and financial advice," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    5. Guiso, Luigi & Pozzi, Andrea & Tsoy, Anton & Gambacorta, Leonardo & Mistrulli, Paolo Emilio, 2022. "The cost of steering in financial markets: Evidence from the mortgage market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 1209-1226.
    6. Utz Weitzel & Michael Kirchler, 2022. "The Banker's Oath And Financial Advice," Working Papers 2022-13, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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