LIKE many of your readers, I have no sympathy whatever for our bankers and there is no doubt that at the higher levels of management many are either knaves or fools. “We did not know” simply will not wash.

That Joe Public is being cynically used is plainly demonstrated in the multitude of letters a member of my family receives from a major bank, under public control, which offer mouthwatering, unsolicited loans, with interest rates that I believe have been fixed adversely by the current scam.

Would these ludicrous credit levels on offer be accepted, it would have severe lifestyle consequences.

I was under the impression this was part of the problem in the first place. They have learned nothing and richly deserve the harsh treatment that is promised. I would not hold my breath on that one, however.

My late father-in-law was a Scottish banker and, when his bank was taken over by the Bank of Scotland he commented that the Saltire Cross in their emblem was the cross the British Linen Bank had to bear and the four balls were a comment on how they handled things.

When “big bang” first happened in the 1980s the chairman of the Stock Exchange commented that we now have the skills to do all things but, possibly, not the morals. Prophetic words indeed. They would sell their Granny’s kidneys.

J A Whitmore, Springfield Road, York.