Banks must learn their lesson

A committee for the banking sector headed by Cees Maas, former vice chairman of the executive board for the Dutch ING Group, has presented a report on the responsibility of banks for the financial crisis. Among other things the report recommends tougher regulation of the bonus system. "Banks are learning their lesson," the daily De Volkskrant writes. "The banks have still not apologised for the credit crunch, but there has been considerable progress since last autumn when the top bankers were casting themselves as victims at a parliamentary hearing. Maas and his team have now fully recognised that pretty much everything is foul in the world of banking. But more important is the fact that they have coupled this with the necessary consequences. The latter is worth more than a paltry 'sorry' after getting back to business as usual. … The most important question however is how we can prevent the report from disappearing into a drawer."

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