It’s a tough time to be a banker.  One banker I had lunch with in the US said “I don’t think I’d tell my kids to get into this profession any more.”  Jamie Dimon is annoyed and wants the US to drop out of the Basel III accord because he believes it unfairly penalizes the largest banks (a small list of the largest banks indeed have to accumulate far more capital than the rest of the industry, in the interest of safety and systemic risk).  Meanwhile the UK regulators – see Sir John Vickers here –  are implementing the latest version of Glass-Steagall, ie “ring-fence” those evil investment bankers.  Clearly we must be protected from them and their life-sucking, bonus-gather ways, as the real banking industry, the one that serves poor consumers, shouldn’t be required to bail out the others when their gambling becomes too egregious.

Meanwhile, europe’s banks took a turn for the worse yesterday, over fears from their exposure to Greece.  Shares in the largest banks in France were hit 10%.  Methinks that the world will end up with a more starkly laid out industry of winners and losers…and even the winners will win less than they used, when the heady days produced ROE of 15-20%.  Alas, alack, there will still be plenty of bonus money for those winners…I just wonder about the poor building societies, cajas and savings banks.  The purpose of a bank, after all, is to take in deposits, provide payment services and extend credit.  The further we get from those basic purposes, the less well served is the broader economy.