Sir, - Further to the enlightening article from the Labour Party finance spokesman, Derek McDowell, on how "hugely profitable banks have ripped us all off" (The Irish Times, September 14th), a number of basic questions remain on how the banks intend to conduct themselves in the next millennium.
Since appearing under oath before the DIRT inquiry the banks' representatives have given performances which insult the basic intelligence of their customers. Their catalogue of grotesque denials and naive excuses is deeply rooted in a culture where the heavy hand of slick gombeen men was given a free reign in the land of peasants. Time and time again we have heard these bankers utter such wonder phrases as the necessity to "maintain national stability", the need to "look after deposit-holders", and the wonderful way of putting it for tax evasion and short-changing the State: "a forward-looking approach". While the source of such arrogance and indifference is understandable, it is no longer acceptable.
Do the banks - including the Central Bank - actually appreciate the level of public anger and distrust? Do they understand how their reckless behaviour has seriously damaged public confidence and thereby run an unnecessary risk with our hard-won economic prosperity? And as the extraordinary profits were not made by providing a good service, but by fraudulent means and leaching the pennies from honest customers, do the owners of the banks - the shareholders - feel comfortable taking dividends made by such means? It defies logic how some of the financial institutions in question have the nerve to incorporate the word Irish or Ireland into their name!
Our major financial institutions face an uphill struggle to gain respectability. Perhaps a public declaration of intent to observe basic responsibilities and duty of accountability would be a small step in the right direction? Forward-looking would be allocating a reasonable percentage of profits to boost social housing funds or/and insure against repossessions where mortgage holders fall into difficulties; provision for once-off "amnesty" for small business people who fall on hard times; and how about not being so miserly and mean-minded as to continuously hide behind the small print of "terms and conditions", in cases where common sense and virtue would serve the many.
So in the next millennium will there be an honest, forward-looking smile behind the bank manager's counter, or the slick "yes sir, thank you for banking with us - and what can we do you for?"
Ciaran Walsh Dublin 3