IT is impossible to say with any accuracy how much money Deutsche Bank and indirectly its shareholders acquired by illegally manipulating interest rates ("Regulator hammers Deutsche Bank with huge fine", The Herald, April 24).
This latest fine of £227 million imposed by the FCA is a flea-bite on the banking sector representing as it does less than the sweepings on the floor of an industry that processes trillions of pounds-worth of transactions each day. Despite the illegal practices not being the acts of single rogue-traders but being part of a global network of systemic malpractice and this latest guilty bank appearing to have been less than fully cooperative with the FCA, it escapes effective meaningful punishment. How can a financial fine have any deterrent effect on a system that can create as much money as it wants via fractional reserve lending?
The only certainty about the affair is that we the general public will suffer financially from both the original crime and the belated efforts of the hapless FCA and its predecessors. We are left with one fundamental unanswered question and that is why when we steal from banks we go to jail yet when banks and bankers steal from us they don't.
David J Crawford,
Flat 3/3 131 Shuna Street, Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article