UK bank boss to bankers: Learn from 2012 athletes

UK bank boss to bankers: Learn from 2012 athletes

Britain's scandal-tainted bankers couldlearn a thing or two from the country's athletes after these Olympics, thecountry's central banker says.
In a newspaper editorial Sunday, Mervyn King wrote that the London Olympicshowed it was wrong to argue that massive bonuses were needed to motivatepeople to do well.
King said the success of Olympians and the pride of the 10,000 volunteers atthe games showed that "motivation does not come from financial incentivesalone."
"The financial sector has done us all a disservice in promoting the beliefthat massive financial compensation is necessary to motivate individuals,"he wrote in the Mail on Sunday. "Look at the success of the volunteerswhose presence at the Olympic Park and around London did so much to create theatmosphere of happiness that pervaded the games."
The recent scandals that have rocked Britain's financial world showed that"banks could learn a thing or two about fair play from the Olympic movement,"he said.
King's comments come as the reputation of Britain's banking industry — whichtook a body blow during the global financial crisis — has hit new a low.British banks have long been in the dock over mis-selling of insurance andinterest rate products to consumers and small businesses. But more recentscandals have provided new shocks.
Last month Barclays was forced to pay a $453 million fine for manipulating akey market interest rate. HSBC, another big London-based bank, faces fines ofup to $1 billion after the U.S. Senate issued a damming report alleging it hadfailed to stop the laundering of Mexican drug money. And, back in May, JPMorganChase & Co. disclosed a surprise $2 billion trading loss — later upgradedto nearly $6 billion — racked up by its London office.
Most recent were allegations, out of New York, that U.K. bank StandardChartered had spent years laundering Iranian oil money.
King isn't the first to argue that British Olympians — who are basking the glowof a huge haul of gold medals — could set an example for other sections ofsociety.
England manager Roy Hodgson said Saturday he wanted the country's soccerplayers to behave more like Olympians, underscoring fans' unhappiness with a"season of shame" marred by two high-profile racism cases.

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