Comprehensive presentation with script found at http://thefinanser.co.uk/fsclub/2009/11/bankers-good-or-evil-the-full-monty.html

1. Are bAnkers
good or bAd
for society?
Chris Skinner, www.thefinanser.com
Gresham College, 26th October 2009

2. Socially useful?
“Some of it
is socially
useless
activity”
Adair Turner

3. “Banks have chased
short term profits by
introducing complex
products of no real
use to humanity”
Stephen Green

4. “Don’t have
headlines saying
banks are ‘socially
useless’, because
they ain’t.”
Victor Blank

5. “As society, we
have benefited
hugely from
innovation and
financial services is
at the forefront.”
Win Bischoff

7. AgendA
bAnking is essentiAl for society
bAnkers role in society
bAnkers morAls And ethics
bAnking for good or for bAd
bAnkers todAy
bAnkers tomorrow

9. revolutions
Formalising commerce – the first time
agriculture
www.balatroltd.com

10. www.balatroltd.com

11. A Babylonian shekel coin minted much later under Persian rule (c. 300BCE).

12. http://www.josephinemaisonet.com/Photos/G
oddesses/Inanna.jpg

16. AgendA
bAnking is essentiAl for society
bAnkers role in society
bAnkers morAls And ethics
bAnking for good or for bAd
bAnkers todAy
bAnkers tomorrow

21. “The most common communicatio
problems that create stress in a
marriage are usually related to
finances and sex”
www.divorce.com

27. AgendA
bAnking is essentiAl for society
bAnkers role in society
bAnkers morAls And ethics
bAnking for good or for bAd
bAnkers todAy
bAnkers tomorrow

31. My house was designated a
house of prayer;
You have made it a hangout
for thieves.

32. UsUry

33. AgendA
bAnking is essentiAl for society
bAnkers role in society
bAnkers morAls And ethics
bAnking for good or for bAd
bAnkers todAy
bAnkers tomorrow

35. leverAge

38. risk

43. herd

45. Lex Pompeia

49. complexity

52. AgendA
bAnking is essentiAl for society
bAnkers role in society
bAnkers morAls And ethics
bAnking for good or for bAd
bAnkers todAy
bAnkers tomorrow

56. My role is to
“find the chinks
in the regulators’
armour”
Salomon’s
General Counsel,
Donald
Feuerstein

57. “In our view, derivatives are
financial weapons of mass
destruction, carrying
dangers that, while now
latent, are potentially lethal.
Warren Buffet
Berkshire Hathaway
Annual Report, 2002

58. “It is not that
humans have
become any more
greedy than in
generations past.
It is that the
avenues to express
greed have grown
so enormously.”
Alan Greenspan
July 2002

59. “It is not that
humans have
become any more
greedy than in
generations past.
It is that the
avenues to express
greed have grown
so enormously.”
Alan Greenspan
July 2002

67. leverAge
risk
herd
complexity

68. leverAge
networked
complexity

69. Banks have written off $1.6 trillion so far
Bloomberg

73. Our regulators
were “asleep in
the back shop
while there
was a mugging
out front”
John McFall

74. “A British bank is run with precision
A British home requires nothing less!
Tradition, discipline, and rules must be the tools
Without them - disorder! Chaos!
Moral disintegration!
In short, we have a ghastly mess!”

76. AgendA
bAnking is essentiAl for society
bAnkers role in society
bAnkers morAls And ethics
bAnking for good or for bAd
bAnkers todAy
bAnkers tomorrow

77. “For people to have
been selling products
which they neither
knew or understood –
or, worse, did know
and none the less did
sell – is a profoundly
moral issue.”
Ken Costa

78. “To restore trust and
confidence, we will
need to recognise the
moral dimension of
what has happened,
and to restore a proper
sense of values in our
corporate lives”
Stephen Green

79. Victor Blank
“You have to
find where the
problem lies ...
Investment banking”

80. “Financial
services
innovation must
be performed
with foresight
and regulation.”
Win Bischoff

85. http://thefinanser.co.uk/fsclub/2009/02/the-new-eu-regulator-and-liquidity-risk.html

91. The Value of
Bank Brands
2009

95. conclUsions

98. “If this crisis leads to a
genuine reassessment of
the role of ... banking ...
it may come to rank as
one of the great turning
points in history.”

99. “The financial sector
that is emerging from
the crisis is even more
riddled with moral
hazard than the one
that went into it.”
Martin Wolf

100. “Be greedy when
others are fearful
and fearful when
others are greedy.”
Warren Buffett

102. Are bAnkers
good or bAd
for society?
Chris Skinner, www.thefinanser.com
Gresham College, 26th October 2009