We are now 5 years past the Great Recession of 2008, yet governments’ in both the United States and the United Kingdom are still obsessing about banks’ sins of the past.  The most recent headline is that the U.K. believes that RBS intentionally allowed viable businesses to go bankrupt to gauge them for advisory fees and to pick up assets on the cheap.  While I’m not disputing that RBS likely had some unsavory characters, I find it very hard to believe that these were viable companies, because viable companies have multiple financing options.  This comes right after J.P. Morgan’s record settlement, which just continued to escalate and where CEO Jamie Dimon was left with basically no options to defend the bank.  It is my opinion that one of the reasons why this economic recovery has been so weak is that the banks’ haven’t been able to lend due to regulatory uncertainties, starving many smaller companies of much needed access to capital.  The impact on larger companies is much less substantial, due to their ability to issue corporate bonds at attractive rates because of the Fed’s zero interest rate policy.  At what point do we acknowledge that there was blame that could be spread across the board that led the Financial Crisis and focus on moving forward?  What would be more helpful than that?

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-25/who-will-save-u-k-from-royal-bank-of-scotland-.html