After the 2008 financial crisis, banks initially acted like a cartoon character who shoots over a cliff-edge at high speed and keeps going for a while before falling. Five years on, they are lying on the ground – and will never be allowed to return to their fast-paced ways.
It has taken a long time for the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic to address some of the deep-seated problems that contributed to the crisis. But they are now doing so, despite all the lobbying and protests. Few bankers have gone to jail, but the industry is being disciplined.
This week brought two announcements that strike at the distortions caused to banking by cheap credit and the underpricing of risk over past decades. One was the Federal Reserve’s decision to implement the Basel III capital rules, and to add extra measures. The other was the European Commission’s assault on how banks trade credit derivatives.