New Delhi, April 12 -- Agents and employees representing banks and non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) have been known to frequently push inappropriate products on hapless customers in their zeal to boost sales and rake in the commissions that come with them.

A senior citizen is encouraged to purchase a risky market-linked product such as a unit-linked insurance plan (ULIP) instead of a safe fixed-income instrument offering steady returns. Or a homemaker purchases a mixer-grinder with EMIs, only to find she has also been signed up for an expensive credit card that never showed up but was nevertheless impossible to cancel.

These dodgy methods, which can be deceptive or misleading, are not necessarily fraudulent if the customer's consent...