It’s over a year now since the world faced up to the biggest economic crisis in seventy years.

There is a consensus between government, business and even the banking industry itself, that the depth and scale of the crisis had been exacerbated by irresponsible banking practices.

So what’s news about that? We all know that these incompetent, overpaid and greedy organisations broke every rule of financial logic and got away with it.

The capitalist system decided they were “too big to fail” whatever that means and the architects of the crisis were spared, whilst honest, prudent and hardworking citizens around the globe had their lives torn apart.

But it gets worse.  After holding their hands up and saying “mea culpa,” they explained their mistake in simple terms. They gambled the world’s savings and investments on short term profits and lost.

They pleaded that they didn’t need regulation to correct their failed strategy. They would change their ridiculously generous bonus systems to reflect long term shareholder value, not short term profits.

So we all took a collective sigh of relief and considered they’d learned their lesson and we’d all be safe now. A few angry businessmen moan about credit terms, but overall all is quiet.

But the reality is different. These stupid, greedy bankers are at it again.

Forgetting that their long-term profits come from successful business activities, they screw — sorry, but screw is the right word — their clients. They put ridiculous margins and service fees on lending, just because they can!

Because there is still no liquidity in the system yet, they can punish prudent successful businesses with aggressive charges….and why? Well, to recover their profits as soon as physically possible; to no doubt start the process of racking up some much needed bonuses.

They know they can’t get much from the over leveraged customers who are on their knees in debt. So they turn to the ones who have been more prudent, have some assets left and frankly can afford to pay.

In my opinion more of these banks should have been allowed to close. Good practice should be rewarded in a capitalist society, that’s how we move forward.

If these institutions want to be bailed out by tax payers they should be regulated to avoid excessive bonuses and short term profit strategies.  Not just this year, but forever!

I had a very bad personal experience with SEB Bank here in the Baltics.

They indeed squeezed every last kroon out of me through arrangement fees and penalties just to allow me to continue paying very high interest rates to them.

When I challenged their staff about these charges, they agreed that they were “unreasonable,” but reminded me that the bank had just published poor results and “someone had to pay.”

My girlfriend nearly crashed the car over hearing this phone conversation.

Their attitude and strategy was disgraceful, I have since terminated all my activities with SEB Bank, no doubt as a small fish they will not even have noticed.

So my friends, lets do something about it! Bankers up against the wall and this is the least they deserve.

Enjoy your Christmas bonus you financial wizards and don’t forget to put a penny in my tin as you rush past!

Disclaimer:

Views expressed in the opinion section are never those of the Baltic Reports company or the website’s editorial team as a whole, but merely those of the individual writer.