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Banks yet to answer for pivotal role in crisis
By Paul Mills
There is little that incenses people more than seeing blatant unfairness in the system and then listening to cant and hypocrisy justifying the situation.
The performance of this Government, and the last, in dealing with those in the banks, and those at the top of the public sector, including politicians, who were responsible for bringing this country to its proverbial knees, is abysmal.Other so-called civilised countries seem to take a more responsible approach and are dealing, or have already dealt, with those who created the problems. Not so for Mother Ireland.
In Ireland, we have no difficulty in putting someone in jail for six years for fiddling Vat. We can give bag snatchers several years for robbing a handbag. We can hunt for folk fiddling the social welfare system. We can change people’s pension entitlements retrospectively. We can threaten folk for a mere €100 for a new household charge. It even seems that forgetting — or being unable to — pay your car tax is a capital crime.
Yet certain privileged groups are immune from any charge, any penalty.
Incompetence, greed, blackguarding, or downright corruption is somehow swept under the carpet and made to disappear. The country is on its knees because of the actions of the relatively few but, apparently, they have contracts that cannot be broken. In comparison, ours are confetti.
Even our TDs are immune from their own actions. Some have abused the expenses system and nothing seems to have happened to them.
This dipping repeatedly into the pockets of ordinary folk never seems to stop.
Each week that goes by, we learn more and more of what has been happening in the financial services industry. We learn of fraud and corruption, of insider trading, of falsifying accounts and of manipulating interest rates.
Most of us will have read of the mis-sold insurance policies. In recent days we’ve learned that the major banks manipulated the Libor rate to their own benefit. That affects everyone. The Libor rate is the base rate used between banks and is a determinant of the rate that the bank quotes you and me when we get a loan, or indeed when we deposit money.
Bob Diamond, CEO of Barclays, the first bank to be fined, has already resigned. Mind you, his chairman indicated his intention to resign the previous day but is now back as full-time, presumably executive, chairman until a replacement for Mr Diamond is sourced.
We have already been advised that many of the bigger banks are being implicated and will also be fined. We can be certain Mr Diamond is not the only senior executive of Barclays to have been involved. Barclay’s fine was a horrendous $450m (€560m) and the rest will be just as much if not more. It’s even been suggested that the BoI has been implicated in the manipulation.
Thus far, we have not heard if Mr Diamond will be walking away with a golden handshake. So far in Ireland, anyone leaving the top echelons of banking or indeed the public sector has been rewarded for their incompetence or worse, although in reality it’s probably for going quietly and not spilling the beans.
Should we hold our collective breath and hope that when these folk are identified, not only will they lose their lucrative positions, but any pay-off or gratuity that they would expect?
Should we expect that the bonuses they obtainedbecause of their improper manipulations will be recovered? After all, a guy on the dole who was overpaid would have to hand it back. Why not these folk? The financial services sector has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted. Why then does government continue to put so much faith in their doing the right thing? Why would the Government give a virtual veto to the banking sector over the personal financial problems of folk in its new proposal for dealing with bankruptcy and indebtedness?
business@examiner.ie
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