Bankers played a leading role in the crisis, but they aren't criminals

Inside Job director Charles Ferguson caused a stir with his Oscar speech, but his suggestion that people should be jailed over the financial meltdown is simplistic
It was an easy line for an eager crowd. Picking up an Oscar for his scattergun credit crunch documentary Inside Job, director Charles Ferguson got a cheer from Hollywood's finest for a rant about the absence of prison time handed down to Wall Street banking bosses.

"Forgive me," Ferguson told his fellow movie-making luminaries. "But I must start by pointing out that three years after a horrific financial crisis caused by massive fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail. And that's wrong."

The baldness of his sentiment, widely shared by the public on both sides of the Atlantic, has caused a stir in the financial community. Interviewed afterwards by the Wall Street Journal, Ferguson expanded on his theme, declaring that "there should be dozens or even perhaps hundreds of senior financial executives in prison now".

Unfortunately, it's just not that simple. Ferguson's remarks are in tune with his entertaining, polemical film, which contains interviews with financial players ranging from George Soros to Christine Lagarde, Nouriel Roubini and Eliot Spitzer. Using the briefest of quotable snippets from each, the documentary builds a crude argument that the global financial meltdown was a conscious "inside job" caused by greedy, ruthless, mendacious, out-of-control bankers.

Bank commission calls for 'profound reform' of banks

Risk-free "safe haven" accounts guaranteed by the government should be set up as part of a "profound reform of the banking system", a report says.


The Future of Banking Commission wants improvements in saver protection and restructuring of banks.

The commission was set up by consumer group Which? and is chaired by Tory MP David Davis.

He told the BBC that big banks must be broken up in order to prevent another financial crisis.

"If we don't do something, next time [a crisis] happens it will break the country - it will go bankrupt," he told the Andrew Marr Show.


He said breaking up the banks would be "tough to do, but it's got to be done".

Earlier, Mr Davis said fatal flaws in the banking structure had almost crippled the world economy.

He said the commission's proposals should prevent matters coming to such a head again.
"If we don't do something, next time [a crisis] happens it will break the country - it will go bankrupt," he told the Andrew Marr Show.



He said breaking up the banks would be "tough to do, but it's got to be done".

Earlier, Mr Davis said fatal flaws in the banking structure had almost crippled the world economy.

He said the commission's proposals should prevent matters coming to such a head again.

The commission, which was set up last December, gathered evidence from regulators, consumer groups and business leaders including Bank of England governor Mervyn King, the Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Turner and the current Business Secretary Vince Cable.



Its recommendations will be delivered to 11 Downing Street, with the hope that they will shape government's policy on financial reform.

Executives from the UK's largest banking groups contributed to the commission and it also took evidence from consumers.

The commission says its recommendations aim to put ordinary people at the heart of a reformed banking system.

They include reforms to the structure of banks so if they fail, depositors are protected, and the introduction of new competition and regulatory regimes that make bank boards responsible for both meeting customers' needs and for their own solvency.