SINGAPORE - The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS), Life Insurance Association of Singapore (LIA) and Association of Financial Advisers Singapore (AFAS) on Thursday jointly urged consumers to give feedback on their financial advisers under new performance assessment rules that came into effect this year.

Known as the "balanced scorecard framework", the new approach will take into account non-sales factors in determining the pay of the agents and their supervisors.

If the agent is deemed to have failed in areas such as not selling suitable products or not giving adequate information to the customer, they could lose their variable pay, while their supervisors' pay could also be cut. This represents a marked change from the old system where advisers were mostly paid based on their sales results.

Banks, life insurance companies and licensed financial adviser firms began implementing the new system on Jan 1. They are expected to contact their clients to obtain feedback about the latter's experiences on their recent purchases of investment or insurance products.

Said ABS director Mrs Ong-Ang Ai Boon: "We seek the co-operation of clients to respond to banks when such feedback is sought. This will help to enhance the standards of professionalism and proper conduct, which will ultimately benefit all clients."