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Banks need to stop blaming regulators and concentrate on repairing their reputation | Banks need to stop blaming regulators and concentrate on repairing their reputation |
(about 1 hour later) | |
First HSBC chairman Douglas Flint warned that regulatory reforms were exhausting staff and leaving them so “risk averse” they were frightened to much beyond selling simple deposit accounts. | First HSBC chairman Douglas Flint warned that regulatory reforms were exhausting staff and leaving them so “risk averse” they were frightened to much beyond selling simple deposit accounts. |
Then Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio chimed in with a similar message. Now Standard Chartered’s head of Asia Jaspal Bindal is at it, whining that his bank is being treated “like a criminal”. | |
During the good times, when money flooded the City like a burst Thames Water pipe, banks didn’t bother too much about what their people were doing to make it. | During the good times, when money flooded the City like a burst Thames Water pipe, banks didn’t bother too much about what their people were doing to make it. |
Indulged by politicians, who ordered watchdogs to take it easy, the result was they almost broke the world’s economy. Since then a string of ugly scandals have emerged in the backwash and the mood has changed. | Indulged by politicians, who ordered watchdogs to take it easy, the result was they almost broke the world’s economy. Since then a string of ugly scandals have emerged in the backwash and the mood has changed. |
With regulators finally getting tough, the industry’s big guns appear to feel it’s time to roll back the tide of reform. Their dog whistle is aimed at politicians: In doing their jobs and cramping our style regulators risk damaging the economy. Get them off us. Let’s party again! | With regulators finally getting tough, the industry’s big guns appear to feel it’s time to roll back the tide of reform. Their dog whistle is aimed at politicians: In doing their jobs and cramping our style regulators risk damaging the economy. Get them off us. Let’s party again! |
Unfortunately the world outside the glass towers of the financial sector is still suffering from a severe post crisis hangover. And it’s gone teetotal. | Unfortunately the world outside the glass towers of the financial sector is still suffering from a severe post crisis hangover. And it’s gone teetotal. |
Rolling back banking reforms would therefore be political suicide for anyone that tried it. | Rolling back banking reforms would therefore be political suicide for anyone that tried it. |
Which leaves the terrible threesome looking uncomfortably like relics from a bygone age. At a time that the industry badly needs to reform its culture, their words actually serve as an impediment to the work that needs to be done. | Which leaves the terrible threesome looking uncomfortably like relics from a bygone age. At a time that the industry badly needs to reform its culture, their words actually serve as an impediment to the work that needs to be done. |
Bluntly they need to shut up and concentrate on repairing the reputations of their businesses and their industry by ensuring they operate in a fair, ethical, and lawful manner. It can be done, and profitably too. | Bluntly they need to shut up and concentrate on repairing the reputations of their businesses and their industry by ensuring they operate in a fair, ethical, and lawful manner. It can be done, and profitably too. |
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