Banks protected

THE four big banks are a protected species. Costello granted them “pillar” status, Keating recognised they were “too big to fail”, and Gillard underwrote their deposits during the GFC. Yet they behave like laissez-faire capitalist institutions focused on big profits and ridiculous executive salaries rather than social responsibility. Their only shareholders should be their depositors and lenders with modest profits that result from charging higher interest on loans than deposits and merrily raising interest rates outside that set by the Reserve Banks.