Letter - Incensed by banks' antics

I'm sure I am not alone in being greatly incensed by the antics of banks in general being allowed by successive Governments to foul up our economy with their casino-like activities and recently revealed attempts to rig previously trusted markets to make themselves ever more profitable at the expense of our economy.

It is obvious that the light touch regulatory system employed by the last Labour government permitted banks to do whatever they pleased to make themselves ever more profitable.

Small firms which rely on small loans at competitive rates to expand their activities and bring job opportunities back into our country have been systematically denied the money they need. This in spite of several measures of encouragement for the banks to do so.

The threatened banking collapse of 2008 in which most American and British banks were involved, both governments were persuaded that this was a disaster which must be avoided at all costs and proceeded to pump billions of taxpayers' money to save the banks from the results of their own profligacy.

Quite frankly their activities should be looked upon as criminal and the CEOs merely denying themselves of their anticipated bonus of millions is not good enough.

They have manipulated millions for selfish reasons, the full extent of which has yet to be revealed, also many more banks besides Barclays have yet to reveal their full involvement.

The police should be engaged in investigating these events, since fraudulent manipulation of these previously trusted indices is an extremely serious matter, which should warrant deterrent measures after court proceedings, like jail sentences, to restore public trust in the industry.

E J Tilley, via e-mail