Ian Hamilton

This column is authored by Ian Hamilton, who is the founder of IDS Group. IDS provides fund administration services in Africa and Europe through Malta. He is also the founder of Scotstone Investments, a company that has fund structures and services for global emerging new managers.

All we want for Christmas (and here I am referring to what I believe is the majority of us) is a year of scandal free and better banking.

The past five years have seen one after another banking scandal unfold, withthe magnitude of the fines dwarfing many countries GDPs.

What are the issues? Simple greed and non- accountability.

Consider the issue of all these fines which are for past misdemeanours carried out by bankers and their associated colleagues earning excessive bonuses.

The current management is now responsible for the fines and the cleaning up. But have any of those architects and perpetrators of the misdemeanours being brought to book? Made to pay back all the loot they received during those “hubristic “days?

The answer is a resounding No!

Now are these fines tax deductible? Here I have not being able to get a straight answer. But if one assumes that the answer is yes, it means that the governments are being cheated of taxes so once again the tax payer is footing the bill.

Another party who is most definitely feeling the effects of these fines are the banking clients through higher fees and from my own personal experience, poorer service.

Other victims are the lower echelons of banking staff that are losing their jobs because of massive cut backs. They then draw unemployment benefits paid for by the poor old taxpayer. The top guys still sit in th......................

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This article was published in Opalesque's New Managers a top-down monthly analysis, news and research publication on the global emerging manager space.