Reserve Bank must put bite on rogues
Currency manipulation allegations give credence to the view that banks cannot see beyond their profit margins
Recent allegations of currency manipulation by banking staff reinforce the view that herd behaviour is entrenched in the sector. After all, the same behaviour — untrammelled greed and exponential self-preservation — led to the 2007 financial catastrophe. The allegations give credence to the view that banks cannot see beyond their profit margins and, left to themselves, will engage in predatory governance and hubris-driven activities. Some of these banks were recently penalised for similar offences: Citibank for forex benchmark rigging and Barclays for the Libor scandal. Cynics would be forgiven for saying that either bankers never learn or the supposedly hefty fines imposed on them are an ineffective deterrent . Since these scandals, global financial regulators have introduced extensive measures to ring in structural change and re-regulate the financial sector. Sadly, these efforts provide only short-lived victories because regulatory agencies such as the Reserve Bank are not proact...
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