Compliance not for banks

Written By: - Date published: 10:06 pm, July 2nd, 2012 - 15 comments
Categories: loan sharks - Tags:

As usual, Alex puts his finger on the problem. Regulatory compliance is not high on the agenda for interest-rate rigging banks in England, who even after being caught rigging interest rates are still  resisting any further regulation. Tapu Misa has the full story, and the right approach in today’s Herald. I liked her comment:

I’m not sure why everyone seems so surprised to find that the financial sector is full of hubristic, self-interested individuals who aren’t overly fussed with ethical behaviour. Isn’t this the logical extension of the dominant economic theory that holds that we’re just self-interested hedonists and the world would be a better place if we left the common good to the market?

That economic theory is now completely discredited. Time to replace TINA (There is no alternative) with TARA (There are real alternatives).

Meanwhile John Key is off to talk to the Big4 Australian banks to find out what’s going on. As Tapu Misa points out, those are the same banks that reached a settlement of $2.2bilion with Inland Revenue who had sued them for avoiding tax in New Zealand. That’s some change. It shows compliance wasn’t on the Aussie banks’ agenda either.

[Bunji: adjusted cartoon to fit on page]

15 comments on “Compliance not for banks ”

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  1. RedLogix 1
    2 July 2012 at 10:15 pm

    So at this point we have to assume all banks are thieving from us. That includes Westpac, Commonwealth, ANZ… all of them.

    Any trust we place in them no longer has any sound basis. Does it Mike?

  2. captain hook 2
    2 July 2012 at 10:29 pm

    awww.. he’s just off to collect his bonus for being a lapdog.

  3. just saying 3
    3 July 2012 at 7:54 am

    Yep Tapu Misa is another national treasure.

    I think there may be a technical problem. I can’t read the last panel of the comic above because it is overlaid with the comments list.

    • Carol 3.1
      3 July 2012 at 7:57 am

      Right click on the comic strip image and open in a new tab/window. Double click on the image in the new tab/window to enlarge it.

  4. just saying 4
    3 July 2012 at 8:29 am

    Ta Carol.

  5. Glg 5
    3 July 2012 at 10:03 am

    The other point of interest is under the TPP we have to allow all American financial services be offers in NZ.

  6. prism 6
    3 July 2012 at 11:33 am

    Alex my flawed tricky worldly wise quick on his feet hero. Awful but so clever and imaginative I have to admire his cheek (ruefully).

  7. Fortran 7
    3 July 2012 at 2:39 pm

    I think Tapu should be considered for a Labour list seat.
    She is one of the best people who talks sense.

  8. darkhorse 8
    3 July 2012 at 10:21 pm

    Actually this is a pandemic – it is not the banks it is the whole system that is acting with a blatant sense of impunity.  I have had dealings with the audit department and they care not a jot about agencies acting responsibly – in fact they – as the cartoon character portrays – are nothing but part of the smoke screen – a charade.

    If you examine every systemic failure this country has experienced over the past decades and you will find the same root cause – not lack of regulation but lack of compliance enforcement – Take our finance companies – even in Australia – the land of the feral convict – they would have been hung out to dry long ago – here in NZ we have retired minsters of justice acting as front men for swindlers.

    Leaky buildings? Stock market?

    We kid ourselves that this country isn’t corrupt but so much of our institutions are in a pathetic and gormless way.  

    • Colonial Viper 8.1
      3 July 2012 at 10:30 pm

      We kid ourselves that this country isn’t corrupt but so much of our institutions are in a pathetic and gormless way.

      Yep, deliberately made pathetic by influential people who knew what they were doing, and wanted to achieve exactly that.

    • prism 8.2
      3 July 2012 at 10:52 pm

      I don’t think we know what corruption is. People here are so timid or naive that we are bound to get the run-around by the business predators that pride themselves on being Dinzoo knives or similar. But then go out of the country and there are others with bigger knives still.
      Transparency International base their measures of corruption on questionnaires within the country I think. But if we refuse to register it and deny it, we will never know the true state of it in NZ.

      • mike e 8.2.1
        4 July 2012 at 12:05 am

        More news on Investment bankers comes to light asw bob diamond falls on his sord.
        John KEY investment banker deeply involved.
        How is Key going to lie his way out of this one.
        His last comment on it was I got out of it before it all happened
        an out and out lie no surprises their!
        BBC world radio says this began on Keys watch when he was at Merrill Lynch.
        His modus operandi fits in with the behaviour exposed where Investment bankers who didn’t play the game were instantly dismissed
        Smiling Assassin!
        John KEY is a habitual corrupt LIAR

  9. Robert Glennie 9
    4 July 2012 at 11:21 pm

    Kia Ora

    I wonder how far the effects of the Barclays scandal are going to reach. Will the effects travel around the world affecting how people view the banking sector, which has clearly not learnt the lessons of 2008.

    http://willsheberight.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/truly-international-scandal.html

    Rob