Bankers' immunity
Sir: I enjoyed (even more than usual) Christopher Fildes's articles of 30 January and 13 February on overseas lending by joint stock banks.
I remember old gentlemen in the City saying years ago: 'Never lend money to Brazil. The City's burned its fingers too often.' Yet still it goes on. This seems to bear out Fildes's Law of Financial Crisis 'A crisis will happen at the time there is no one around who can remember what hap- pened last time.'
What I find astonishing is the total absence of criticism by shareholders. I suggest that in any industrial company showing losses on this scale the manage- ment would have been thrown out years ago. Are bankers beyond criticism. Perhaps you could explain this phe- nomenon.
N. C Pearson
Copt Heath, Cold Ash, Newbury, Berkshire
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