ABSTRACT
In this chapter I explore how psychoanalytically informed research in organizations contributes to our understanding of financial institutions. In the history of the Hungarian financial sector there was a period of four years between 2004 and 2008 when mortgage-based consumer credit given to average-size house-holds exceeded, as a sum total, the total of the previous fifteen years. Concomitantly, the role of ‘customer care’ employees in branch offices during the ‘credit boom’ changed from that of ‘administrator’ to that of ‘sales representative’, despite the official name remaining ‘consultant’. Truly acting as a ‘consultant’ would reflect the primary task of banks more adequately, but to achieve this a manager's role would also have to change to include more listening and coaching.
