Hubris

by Ray Perman

In 1995 Bank of Scotland celebrated 300 years as Britain's oldest commercial bank. Voted 'most admired bank', respected by competitors, applauded by investors and trusted by customers, it looked forward to the next three hundred. Less than 15 years later it was bust, reviled as part of the spectacular collapse of HBOS, the conglomerate it had joined. One of the high-profile victims of the credit crunch, its spectacular fall caused seismic shock waves throughout the financial world. What went wrong? Ray Perman, who has followed the Bank since the 1970s when he was a Financial Times journalist, uncovered the story from documents and dozens of interviews with people at the top in Bank of Scotland and HBOS - from being the bank of choice for the highrolling Monte Carlo mega-rich to losing GBP10 billion. It is a cautionary tale for our times. In the complex world of modern global finance, the brilliant men who ran the company ignored the simple banking rules that their predecessors learned the hard way three centuries before.

486 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2012

About the author

Ray Perman, a writer and journalist for 30 years, was chair of the James Hutton Institute and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of which Hutton was a founder member. His previous books include The Rise and Fall of the City of MoneyThe Man Who Gave Away His Island.

Reviews

[Vandita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes. It is yet another book which tries to make sense of how the financial crisis hit some of the most staid banks I but it is more than that. This book charts out the 300+ years of history of the first bank established in Britain (post Bank of England), Bank of Scotland, which was called just theThe Bank, from a conservative bank, proud of its roots and it's place in history to an amalgamation of banks through mergers, driven eventually by growth for growth sake and resulting in its failure during 2007-8 crisis. It is well written and the pace of change in last 10years before the crisis drove it to ground, in spite of 300 years ' solid performance. This book along with 'Making it happen' by Iain Martin, covers two main British institutions (HBOS-Lloyd's and RBS) which were worse hit in the crisis and which had to be bailed out by the govt by injecting capital. These books give a perspective of what happens when the received wisdom and basic tenets of banking are ignored, by people who should have known better. Hubris is the apt title for this well written, easy read book - which should be recommended read for all aspiring bankers and bankers who need reminding what this profession is all about.

[Patrick Mccay · Rating 3 out of 5]

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