The banks that stayed afloat with billions in government bailout money are laughing, well, all the way to the bank. And Britain’s top financial services regulator says that’s got to change.
“There remains, I believe, an absence of the acceptance of collective responsibility for what has happened,” Hector Sants of the Financial Services Authority opines today. “I personally remain unconvinced that all senior management have taken on board the need to change and operate in a genuinely different manner.”
Well, why would they? Governments on both sides of the Atlantic have handed out the billions with nary a string attached. And they’ve continued to do so even as banks continue to behave badly.


Sants is simply trying to keep his agency from being broken up, as the party likely to be running the U.K. next year has demanded. And maybe the City and Wall Street would be wise to throw the saviors in London and Washington a bone, rather than take taxpayer money to fund bonuses. But Sants and his ilk have to make the banks mend their ways. They’re not likely to do it themselves, when the status quo + bailout bucks is proving so profitable.
Sants says banks failed to learn lessons [FT]

Comments (24)

  1. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 12:29 PM

    In the history books 20 yrs from now, guess what Goldman Sachs HQ is going to be known as – The New Bastille.
    Revolution is coming you Wall Street crooked panzies. You bought Obama out, touche for it.
    The next punch is from the “populist white middle america” & it will ensure that the “bankster rent seeker” class gets their comeuppance.
    Bankster’s new motto (Rhymes to the Marine’s motto) ” Form the hall of Wall Street to the Whore of DC – We’re stealing/bankrupting & conning everyone -Because is on our DNA. We are vampire blood suckers as is our birthright “

  2. Posted by american bandersnatch | November 9, 2009 at 12:32 PM

    @1 – May I recommend psychiatric counseling? Or perhaps getting a hobby / girlfriend?

  3. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 12:32 PM

    shitty post, sorry jon. love ya tho.

  4. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 12:37 PM

    Jon?
    Yuse and I are gunna play a little game I call rag doll. Yuse da rag doll. I’se the golden gloves boxer.
    CG

  5. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 12:39 PM

    wow – where did the Glen Beck crowd come from?

  6. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 12:47 PM

    @1 – I’d recommend not carrying the pitchfork and torch at the same time. Much too complicated.
    Sort of a “walking and chewing gum” thing, which I don’t think you should try either.

  7. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 12:48 PM

    Shazman – one wonders how the banks are “continuing to behave badly”?

  8. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 12:51 PM

    @1 – Your obese, Harley loving, mouth breathing gaggle of slack jawed troglodytes aren’t going to do shit. You’re going to post a few crazy things on the internet, read a chapter from the Sarah Palin book, masturbate to thoughts of shaving her unwieldy bush while her retarded son watches, and pass the fuck out in a diabetic coma after a day long orgy of Cheetos.
    Go fuck yourself.

  9. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 12:59 PM

    @1′s right kids. When unemployment hits 13% this winter and those bonuses are announced, shit will hit the fan. Far left or far right change will come, Obama’s already a 1 termer for being too cozy with the Street. Get out of NYC and listen to people.

  10. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 1:04 PM

    @8 – get a grip.

  11. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 1:04 PM

    @1- if that is how you feel then does reading dealbreaker really bring you any satisfaction?
    GTFO

  12. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 1:05 PM

    Shaz-diggity, please stop this shit immediately if not sooner. You’re really starting to annoy me.

  13. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 1:13 PM

    “You’re going to post a few crazy things on the internet, read a chapter from the Sarah Palin book, masturbate to thoughts of shaving her unwieldy bush while her retarded son watches, and pass the fuck out in a diabetic coma after a day long orgy of Cheetos.”
    Disturbing yet classic.

  14. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 1:24 PM

    Nothing gets the dealbreaker crowd more hysterically angry than some frank talk about how fucked up the current bailout socialized-loss privatized-gain banking shitbag industry is. You sound like a bunch of tea bagging psychos when someone dares to talk about bank excess. GFY.

  15. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 1:31 PM

    @14 – you’re right. Next we’ll talk about union corruption, the inability of government (or schools) to fire incompetent people, the inherently broken nature of social security, and tort reform.
    Government, social program, and welfare-entitlement society excess.

  16. Posted by NakedShort | November 9, 2009 at 1:33 PM

    @14 but pulling the same kind of stuff with the auto industry, Fannie and Freddie and the chunk of the stimulus money going to refill the state coiffures and extend unemployment benefits, ect is OK right? Because thats what you think is best?

  17. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 1:41 PM

    @naked – nope, I agree with you on those issues. But back to what I was talking about face facts, the taxpayer’s been propping up the banking industry, they’re increasingly out of work, and the banking industry’s funneling that support right into their pockets. See any problem with that?
    Not @1 or TGFD

  18. Posted by InfiniteGuest | November 9, 2009 at 2:00 PM

    Cue the world’s smallest violin playing the world’s saddest song for 1, 9, 14, 17 and fellow travelers.
    Good job staying on topic, though: talk really is cheap.

  19. Posted by NakedShort | November 9, 2009 at 2:00 PM

    @17 sure its a problem. Thats why elections are held.

  20. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 2:04 PM

    @8 I wouldn’t mind taking a peek at Palin’s beaver – shaved or not. Don’t get mad just sayin’.

  21. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 2:46 PM

    @1: that’s when the whores move in.

  22. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 3:45 PM

    @1 – Matt Taibbi? How did you get on here?

  23. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 5:44 PM

    @1, yup, but the middle class is to passive so the banking pirates and Washington spendaholics continue to run amok. Obama ain’t our mama. (Neither are the right wing republicans, btw.)

  24. Posted by guest | November 9, 2009 at 9:24 PM

    God damn, I thought we had gotten rid of the pointless FSA posts when Greg got fired. No one cares what the FSA says, Jon.

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