Lessons from the Financial Crisis and Other Banking Scandals

Abstract

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had dire implications for the UK, creating massive unemployment and years of austerity. This paper looks at the underlying causes of the crisis, together with the reasons why financial regulation in the UK failed to prevent the financial crash. The UK sought to learn the lessons from its failure, and many inquiries, research reports and books have explored the causes and compounding factors. The book “Capital Failure” identified that trust was fundamental to the working of the financial sector, and that the erosion of trust and trustworthy behaviour has had a disastrous effect. Australia escaped relatively unscathed from the GFC, yet recent inquiries into the banking and superannuation sectors have revealed a similar dramatic decline in trustworthiness and ethical standards of behaviour. The article examines how the Australian banking environment evolved, the implication of recent developments including Fintech and Regtech, and what lessons Australia can learn from overseas experience.