The origins of how banks sold Lehman's toxics to unsuspecting clients

A report issued by the European Commission is threatening banks in member countries with turning up the enforcement if they don't clean up their act. The EC took a look at the business conventions of a couple hundred players across Europe and the results of their investigation may shock you.

The report, which analysed 224 financial institutions covering some 80 percent of the market, showed many banks appeared to try to hide charges with complex fee structures that a lot of customers said they found difficult to understand.

Information was often given in legal and financial jargon, important details were hidden in small print and formats were too long without focussing on key features of the product.

For 66 percent of the banks surveyed, fees, as presented on the Internet or on paper, were so unclear that experts needed to contact the institutions for additional information

It's alarming to think banks would operate this way, but those findings were nothing compared to the real stunner.

"Bank salespeople often receive bonuses as incentives to sell certain products. So they are trying to convince people to buy those products, even if they are unsuitable for them," said one official involved in preparing the report.

However, help is on the way for European customers starting in November when the widely feared voluntary code of good practices kicks in. If that doesn't work, banks may encounter a couple shoe throwing incidents of their own.