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You read constantly that banks are lobbying regulators and elected officials as if this is inappropriate. We don't look at it that way.

Banks need to think through their ethics very carefully, and many have done so. I don't know any bank that dismisses the concept of ethical banking.

We think it would be safer if the Bank of England had responsibility for solvency regulation of UK-based banks, as well as having an overall duty to keep the system solvent. Otherwise, there could be dangerous delays if a banking crisis did hit.

I happen to know a bit about banking.

When I started the business, only banks operated at airports, only banks issued travellers' cheques, only banks issued international payments, only banks serviced their own branch networks.

It's wrong to rob banks, yeah, but is it right for banks to loan people money, knowing full well they can't pay it back?

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it.

On private transactions, I'll just go very quickly now, a major difference between the United States and Euroland is that in Europe banks are much more important in financial transactions than in the United States.

We don't think of ourselves as a regional investment bank. We think of ourselves as merchant bankers with clients all over the country.

Housing associations have fingered the fact that they cannot use their assets as liquidity due to Bank of England rules unlike their continental equivalents. This has emerged to be one of the main bottlenecks to getting investment going in the U.K. It is a Bank of England issue.