It’s time for bailed-out banks to show they care

IT MAY seem that 12 years is a long time ago given the extraordinary upheaval this country has seen in those dozen years. But the collapse of the banks which precipitated so much of the political and economic chaos that followed still feels fresh in the memory.

Indeed it is hard to forgive let alone forget the way that the greed of a few in the financial services sector imperilled the wellbeing of this nation and so many people’s jobs. After all the deficit it created and the years of austerity that followed the bailouts of banks such as HBOS, Lloyds and RBS still affect us all to this day.

So it is staggering that the banks are now showing such mean-spiritedness to companies who are suffering and facing bankruptcy because of the extraordinary crisis created by the coronavirus.

After we all paid so dearly to rescue the banks, it seems a small price for them to pay to show some leniency and understanding to otherwise good firms that are struggling in this dark hour.

No wonder the Government has been angered. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Boris Johnson have after all come up with an extraordinary package of support to get us through these tough times.

There can be no excuse for the banks to act badly and Mr Sunak is right to give them a warning about their behaviour.

If companies go to the wall because the banks did not show the flexibility the rest of the nation has shown, then there will be some serious questions to ask about how they operate in the future.