YOUR article on Alistair Darling's views on bankers not being jailed shows his inability to differentiate between risky and reckless lending ("Bankers should not be jailed, says former Chancellor", The Herald, September 17). Of course lending is a risky business but the professional training and experience of bankers should make them able to assess the risks and rewards associated with any request for funds.
This is totally different to the scenario that developed leading up to the financial crisis. Bankers were recklessly manufacturing products based on lending (sub-prime) to individuals who, by all reasonable criteria, were unlikely to be able to maintain interest payments on their loans. These were then bundled and sold on to other institutions as investment grade products with the incentive of a marginally higher coupon. This was by any standard reckless.
The manufacture and sale of these products certainly deserves to be punished in the most severe way including where appropriate a jail term. There must be a strong deterrent between risky and reckless or history will be repeated.
Dave Biggart,
Southcroft, Knockbuckle Road, Kilmacolm.
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