THE TELEGRAPH: Bosses who wrecked rock-solid institutions walked away with millions - leaving us to pay for their folly.
Before the internet age, it was a rite of passage, a feeling that you had finally grown up and were considered responsible and trustworthy. As children, many of us might have had savings accounts or a few pounds in a building society deposited by an ageing aunt.
But to get one's first cheque book was something special. Mine had the words National Westminster Bank written on the front, an imprimatur that could hardly have sounded more rock solid and British to the core, a guarantee of probity and quiet competence.
In those days, banks were forbidding places; there were no open plan offices. A visit to the bank manager, especially for an impecunious student trying to explain a £20 overdraft, was a terrifying experience conducted in a sternly avuncular manner from behind a large desk.
We all knew that such a world had disappeared. But it was none the less astonishing to wake on Monday morning to discover that the Royal Bank of Scotland – my bank, or at least the NatWest bit of it – had posted the biggest loss in British corporate history. >>> By Philip Johnston | Wednesday, January 21, 2009
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