Banks Under Pressure

Voters sometimes have a good long-term memory. Accordingly, so do elected officials and governments. In the United States and Great Britain, the anger of a large part of public opinion against the banks has not diminished. And as important electoral dates approach in each of these countries — in 10 days across the channel and in the beginning of November across the Atlantic — things are heating up. “A free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it,” the American President Obama hammered home yesterday night.

In the United States and in Great Britain, on Wall Street and in The City, the primary financial lungs of the planet, many have reversed their opinions because of the crisis that was triggered in August 2008. Considered in these countries to be the providers of the riches that then supply the whole of the economic fabric, they have become those responsible for a terrible economic and social crisis. And the failures of the system became clearly evident: its opacity, risk-taking without proper accountability, unmonitored speculation and a mix of affairs, i.e. embezzlement.

Ever since, in America and Europe notably, much has been envisioned or done to fill in these cracks and to raise the dykes higher. Today, the focus is on two points: better supervision of the immense market in derivates, where billions of dollars circulate each day often without any link to the real economy, and imposing on banks the obligation to guard themselves against risks that they could be led to take. Also, today, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is set to propose to levy a specific tax on these institutions. This is a small revolution for this institution that recently accepted the feasibility of a global tax on financial activities. This idea has been heralded by anti-globalization activists for a long time: There is definitely something going on in the financial world.