Incompetent Bankers - Chapter 36
By Graham Davies

Banks are getting increasingly creative in their incompetence.

Several Barclays customers this week have discovered unexpected deficits on their accounts. An ATM screen told one customer that he was a billion pounds in the red.

Possibly not too far from the truth, in one respect, though unfortunately the bank spent the money on his behalf without telling him.

I have some small sympathy with High Street banks who were too optimistic in their mortgage-lending practices. After all, customers who were naïve or worked the system to borrow beyond their means are at least partially to blame for their own downfall.

But it seems to me that even the most uninspiring, cautious banking enterprise needs to present itself as being able to (1) add up and (2) use a computer.

This week Barclays' score is nought out of two.

Barclays Wealth (the department for super-rich clients) once had the strapline “Wealth: what’s it to you?” to which they might now want to add the rider “Because we haven’t a clue”.

Perhaps I am being too harsh. After all, they were only wrong by a few zeroes. Which is an excellent description of the Barclays Board.