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  They should never have been given free reign, I say that as a free marketeer....
  
  This is a complex matter and an excessive amount of capital was committed to excessive risk exposure by RBS and HBOS while Northern Rock''s business model was vulnerable to the US debt crisis thatb was itself rooted in Clinton's silly reforms. It was a convergence of a range of factors that brought the whole house down.
  
  Most of the activities that these banks indulged in that caused the problem are quite legitimate and reasonable in themselves. The problem occurred due to excessive exposure and a failure of US banks to properly rate packages of debt for risk. Some of the activities were close to criminal and indeed charges/criminal investigations in the US are ongoing. There were also some problems in the UK over lending criteria being too loose and this really is where the UK banks in question have a lot to answer for, but as I said, not all banks were culpable. Brokers knew which institutions would take 'bad cases' and sadly some brokers were themselves culpable.

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