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  We need legislation similar to the American Glass-Steagall Acts which prohibited deposit-taking institutions from playing in the stock markets for more than 65 years. In my opinion it was the repeal of those laws in 1999 and the accompanying loosening of bank regulation generally which led directly to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. In the UK the rot started in 1987 when deregulation in the City (Big Bang) enabled big banks to buy and run stockbrokers.
  
  We should also look at banking practices in much of Europe where ownership (and therefore governance) are bottom-up not top-down. This produces much more conservative risk appetites.
  
  Knocking bankers willy-nilly shows an appalling ignorance of what well-managed banks are really there for.
  
  There's an old saying that giving capital to a banker is like giving a gallon of beer to a drunk. You know what will happen to it, but you can't predict which wall he will choose. That's why banks need regulation - but sensible regulation, not knee-jerk responses from politicians desperate for votes.

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