Shameful banks

Banks are a service industry and were created to provide a service to industry, commerce and individuals.

They have recently abused their position in society by converting themselves into gambling establishments but, even given their two advantages of gambling with other peoples’ money and not paying a betting tax, they have managed to make a spectacular mess of it.

To defend the closure of local branches as a “commercial decision” is simply effrontery. If banks do not provide a service, then there is little justification for their existence. There is even less justification for the state to rescue them when managerial incompetence results in their financial failure.

PETER M DRYBURGH Falcon Avenue, Edinburgh