Barclays Libor scandal: how can we change banking culture?
Each man, woman and child in Britain has already handed over £19,271. And our money has gone to the banks... In just a few months, and with barely any public debate, every household subbed £46,774 to the City....There ought to be a verb for this kind of involuntary donation. For true accuracy, it should only come in the passive voice. We could call it: to be bankered. "What happened to the British in the early 21st century?", a future historian will ask. "Poor sods," her colleague might reply. "I'm afraid they got totally bankered"....
Where they are obviously right is in recognising that what's come out in the last few days really is a scandal. Through tampering with lending rates, financiers at Barclays and elsewhere distorted everything from how much home-owners paid on their tracker mortgages to the deals struck by pension funds purely to pump up bank profit margins and their own bonuses. The lawsuits for Barclays alone are likely to cost billions.
Against that, the punishment meted out to Bob Diamond's company barely figures. The £290m fine slapped on it by regulators is tax-deductible, making it equivalent to just 13 days' profit. In any case, the bill will be paid by shareholders, rather than traders or senior management.... market manipulation is only the most jaw-dropping example of the corporate rampaging that caused the financial crisis.....
Yet more than enough evidence shows that what bankers want is either no use to the rest of us, or positively harmful.
After the Great Complacence, the taxes paid by finance between 2002 and 2008, during the boomiest boom in human history, came to only £193bn – and were immediately wiped out by the upfront costs of the banking bail-out....There's the revolving door between government and the City, which enables Tony Blair to leave No 10 and be chauffeured straight into a £2.5m a year part-time job with JP Morgan.
Against that, the punishment meted out to Bob Diamond's company barely figures. The £290m fine slapped on it by regulators is tax-deductible, making it equivalent to just 13 days' profit. In any case, the bill will be paid by shareholders, rather than traders or senior management.... market manipulation is only the most jaw-dropping example of the corporate rampaging that caused the financial crisis.....
Yet more than enough evidence shows that what bankers want is either no use to the rest of us, or positively harmful.
After the Great Complacence, the taxes paid by finance between 2002 and 2008, during the boomiest boom in human history, came to only £193bn – and were immediately wiped out by the upfront costs of the banking bail-out....There's the revolving door between government and the City, which enables Tony Blair to leave No 10 and be chauffeured straight into a £2.5m a year part-time job with JP Morgan.
.......................... Aditya Chakrabortty
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