Banks between a rock and a hard place over Russia

IT is possible, just about, to feel sorry for our banks at the moment.

On one level, as interest rates are going to rise probably quite fast, their profits are about to jump without them doing a single thing. This will flow through to bonuses to be paid next winter, about the time half the nation is perishing cold, wrapped in blankets, too poor to leave the house.

But the Russian situation is particularly tricky for them, I think. A piece in the FT the other day made the point that the levels of asset seizures and freezes, and the number of economic and trade restrictions, are unprecedented.

The banks are expected to implement many of the sanctions — or else. This may not be that easy.

On Tuesday, HSBC said that while it is not taking on new custom in Russia, it does have about 300 existing clients there — multinationals trying to navigate their way through extremely tricky waters.

Should it just ditch those clients, which rely on a global bank to take their deposits and pay their staff?

Surely it should not, but it is open to the charge it is thereby doing something terribly wrong.

We should never forget that the bankers owe us, in perpetuity, for the 2008 financial crash they collectively engineered.

Don’t ever let a banker say this wasn’t their fault. It was, aided by fairly careless government policies the bankers were all in favour of.

But they coped well, mostly, with Covid by funnelling money where it was needed and functioning in the most trying of circumstances.

If they are part of how we get through the Ukraine war, we may have to concede they have at least paid off part of the bill they owe.