Many US consumers do not realise banks sell other services such as financial advice, limiting the institutions’ ability to cross-sell, a new report from research house Cerulli says.

It has found banks control 59% of clients’ spending on financial services, including banking.

But Cerulli has questioned this figure, saying recording advisers’ time spent with clients is difficult in such large organisations.

It suspects advisers supplying the data may inflate it to show how good they are at cross-selling products.

Advice from US banks has come under scrutiny after Wells Fargo admitted creating “phantom accounts” to show improved cross-selling figures.

The bank copped a $US185 million ($243.5 million) fine, more than 5000 jobs were lost and the chairman and CEO both resigned.

“Fundamentally, this is a result of a sales culture that was potentially so aggressive that it compelled thousands of employees to cheat the system in order to achieve goals,” the Cerulli report says. “Though this does not reflect the actions of every bank, it does demonstrate the challenges that hard-sell cultures can face.

“While many banks report their typical clients own or use three to five products and services, Wells Fargo very publicly strived for eight per household.”

One result of the scandal is that US banks are dropping the term cross-sell, and referring instead to “deepening relationships”.

The problem for banks is consumers consider them primarily as providers of banking products, rather than offerings such as insurance and financial advice.

While this is seen as a marketing failure, often the problem is one of culture.

“Many executives recognise that these issues are deeply engrained in their culture,” the report says. “Divisions hesitate to share valued client relationships across other areas of the bank.

“The biggest disconnect appears to exist between wealth management and retail lending, even though they work for the same bank and should complement each other.”