I witnessed two mini financial service revolutions on the same day recently.

The first involved an apparently wealthy, perfectly respectable lady in her autumnal years, shouting and banging on the counter of my local bank branch in frustration at the bank representative’s answers to her questions. She was clearly very upset at the way she was being treated and directed most of her frustration at a poster reiterating the brand service promise, which claimed that the branch was ranked no 1 in the country for customer service. As an apparently long-term customer, she clearly begged to differ.

Later that evening, while having to endure nearly three-quarters of an hour of advertisements that I had somehow paid for at the cinema, one particularly distasteful corporate movie featuring an insurance brand invoked the spontaneous ire of a large portion of the audience when it claimed to be an institution “founded on trust” and “keeping its word”.

The slow hand clapping started at the point where the actors in pinstripes suggested that, unlike the other financial services brands, this particular organisation lived its values. Clearly the cross-section of society lured to the cinema by the appeal of Ridley Scott’s latest offering had an issue or two with, shall we say, the authenticity underpinning the message.

I was taken aback by both incidents as we Brits aren’t known for either our public or communal displays of emotion. So I can’t help wondering what will greet the next round of Barclays’ adverts following the news that the group has been landed with record fines for its part in illegally manipulating interest rates

It’s poignant that Barclays has been the first of what will no doubt be a number of financial institutions implicated in this latest of many scandals. Barclays had hitherto managed to maintain such distance from the financial scandals that are still rocking world markets that, without any hint of irony, their CEO Bob Diamond was able to deliver the inaugural Today Business Lecture in 2011.

In his lecture, Diamond not only hammered home the pivotal role of the sector to UK economic health but, most notably, spoke of the need for the financial services brands to re-build trust, and of the critical importance of values, and the power of corporate culture.

The speech wasn’t without several infamous nods towards the cataclysmic consequences markets face, however, if the bankers are continuously chastised or over regulated, a threat that is so often lurking somewhere in the background whenever someone has the temerity to question the reputation and recent record of the leading players. But now headlines like this one - “Done…for you big boy”: how emails nailed Barclays - doubtless had Diamond and his peers within and beyond Barclays HQ choking on their lattes several mornings last week.

I imagine, however, that some of the more courageous/foolhardy business commentators, and the vast majority of customers and shareholders of the major financial services brands, will be thinking that the time for talking, and certainly lecturing, has long passed.

Our banks, believe it or not, were once the pillars of our communities and the custodians not only of our money but of many of the values we hold dear. It’s patently clear, however, that many of these institutions now have serious internal behavioural issues and are in an almighty mess when it comes to understanding what key employees within a sustainable performance culture need to look, feel and - most importantly - act like.

I used to work for a well-known financial services brand, and have assisted some of the other brands down the years, and have a great deal of respect for the vast majority of the executives I’ve met. I have many bankers as long-standing friends and I’m well aware of how passionately they all feel about the organisations they have given so much of their lives to. I also know how powerless they feel at the growing mis-match between the culture projected and the culture they witness daily.

Of course, the problems can be addressed, as I’ve been detailing since the markets collapsed. But unless the traditional HR disciplines like leadership, engagement and culture development, are given as much priority in the bonus-linked performance scorecards of the leaders as the quarterly cost/income ratio and other financial metrics, we’re undoubtedly in for many more brand disasters. And, sadly, they will continue to undermine global commercial confidence, because Diamond was, of course, right about the influence of the sector as most people are fast finding out.

The fact is we have every right to expect our banks to keep the promises they make. Until culture change is taken seriously, CEOs are running the ever-increasing risk that customers, shareholders and even employees will rise to their feet like that cinema audience, either literally or via the increasingly powerful social media networks, and demand that the leaders of our important financial services brands either demonstrably live by their values or start voting with their feet if they either won’t or can’t.