Your bank account details may not be as confidential as you think, particularly from the prying eyes of bank life assurance brokers.
Standard Bank recently admitted to Personal Finance that its assurance brokers were given access to clients' accounts.
The admission came after a Personal Finance reader complained that he had not been properly refunded after he had been mis-sold a life assurance product by the bank and information in his account had been improperly accessed.
It appears that brokers are also given access to accounts at some banks to drum up new business.
Personal Finance has information that one bank has allowed assurance brokers to tap into clients' bank accounts to see if bond payments have been increased.
The broker then suggests that the money be put into a life assurance policy instead even though a person who invests in a life assurance product rather than paying off a bond early is likely to be considerably worse off.
The access of bank brokers to private details of bank accounts has long been an open secret in the assurance industry.
It was one of the main reasons why independent brokers were opposed to the recent introduction of a 21-day cooling-off period on life assurance contracts.
The independent brokers feared as soon as a debit order was submitted to a bank to pay the premiums bank brokers would attempt to steal the business.
When asked by Personal Finance whether brokers were given access to clients' accounts, almost all the major banks replied emphatically "no".
First National Bank said outside brokers certainly don't have access. But brokers who are employed by its brokerage division, First Bowring, do have access under certain circumstances, for instance when a broker is involved in a product that involves life assurance and a normal banking product.
NBS said its brokers are given access to clients' accounts to look after portfolios after they have been sworn to secrecy.
The bank said its brokers were all salaried staff and received no commissions.
Lance Edmunds, general manager of the housing division of the Council of South African Banks (Cosab), says your account should be confidential. Banks, in terms of their code of conduct, have a duty of confidentiality to their clients.
"If anyone gains access to information they are not entitled to, this would be a serious breach of conduct."
The banks have in recent years moved strongly into the life assurance field with all having set up broker divisions.
As a result increasing pressure is being brought to bear on clients to purchase life assurance products, particularly when they raise a bond on a new home.
Personal Finance is receiving more and more proof that most banks are applying a blanket policy of insisting on new life assurance, whether or not you need it.
A number of banks, until a recent Personal Finance exposé, continued to sell clients endowment-linked policies knowing that clients would be far worse off after 20 years with current high interest rates.
The products were constructed so you would only pay the interest on your home loan and not the capital.
Instead of paying off the capital you would pay off a 20-year endowment policy. The bank and assurance broker scored to your disadvantage.