Risk-taking bankers must heed rules of the road or lose licence

Appearing before the banking inquiry this week, the expert who coined the term ‘zombie banks’ was full of ideas, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

A grizzled American academic visited us last week to deliver some telling insights on the state of high finance to the banking inquiry currently taking place in the Oireachtas.

Professor Ed Kane of Boston College originally coined the term ‘zombie banks’, but it is pretty clear that he regards much of the current regulatory system as more than a little inert. Prof Kane, with his flat, unvarnished accent, could have stepped straight out of the set of the 1950s film On the Waterfront. The film, starring Marlon Brando, dealt with the thuggish practices of criminal types controlling the docks. Prof Kane had the somewhat weary look of an overworked, chain-smoking union official, but there was nothing tired, or tiring, about his testimony.