BANKING IS CORRUPT - OFFICIAL.

The news that 'Barclays' bank has been fined a substantial amount, almost £300m in fact, for manipulating interest rates might be shocking but doesn't really come as any surprise. Anyone who's used any bank in the last 30 years cannot be anything but well aware of the way in which 'service' has declined and management-speak, opacity and greed have become all.

Every time I pay in any significant sum, I'm asked if I have plans for the money, this being a programmed mechanism designed to see if the bank can get its grubby little hands on the money. If a withdraw anything significant, there is a similar reaction; my own main bank even takes to ringing me or writing to me on such occasions, asking if I'd like to attend a financial appraisal meeting, but couching the invitation in such a way as to suggest that the meeting has already been arranged. 

In recent years, I've experienced a number of problems with banks and it's usually needed a letter to the Chief Executive to get matters resolved; the resolution is frequently accompanied by a degree of financial compensation which is really a sweetener to get me to go away and not make any more fuss.

The fines that have been imposed on Barclays, and the bits and pieces that such banks regularly pay out as compensation for screwing their customers' accounts up, aren't a charge on the bank. These monies all come out of the profits that the bank would otherwise make and, therefore, are paid by their shareholders rather than those who are actually responsible for the mistakes, be they innocent or, as in the manipulation of interest rates, morally if not actually criminal. In the case of Barclays, some of their senior directors have announced, in an attempt to save their own reputations, that they will forego this year's bonuses; what will happen about the pay and bonuses of those who are no longer employed, if anything, has yet to be announced. 

As I write, a further twist in this story has come to light, with the revelation that a number of major international banks have been discovered to have been manipulating the LIBOR rate, an interest rate benchmark that is relied on by banks worldwide. If anyone wanted proof that banking is a corrupt business, they now have it. We should expect some very big names from some very big banks to find themselves in prison before very long - much more likely is that more shareholders' monies will simply be paid out in fines and the criminal behaviour of the super-rich banking officials will simply be brushed under the carpet.