The period since the Global Financial Crisis and numerous scandals have exposed some areas of serious illegal and unethical conduct within western banking systems. Despite extensive reforms it is increasingly apparent however that there is a persistent problem with the 'culture' of banking in Anglo-America. US and UK state managers made substantial efforts to reform the culture of their banking sectors. However, this book argues that they focused on an extremely narrow definition of bank culture. They did so for two reasons: firstly, because the structural pressures of financialization - which are a far more important driver of the problematic features of bank culture in Anglo-America - are harder to remedy; but secondly, state managers also used their bank culture response to tackle a legitimacy crisis facing their institutions of government. In so doing they abdicated responsibility for the real problems - of inequality and instability - associated with their respective financial systems Drawing on interviews with more than 150 individuals working in financial services as well as regulators, politicians, and lawyers, The Bank Culture Debate explains the strategies employed by state managers before then examining what has and has not changed in the culture of banking in the US and UK.

About the Author
Dr Macartney is Associate Professor in Political Economy at the University of Birmingham. He was previously a Hallsworth Fellow at the University of Manchester, and an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Nottingham. His research focuses on the politics of banking and financial markets and he is the author of two books and numerous journal articles on these topics. His work has been published in internationally-renowned journals such as Review of International Political Economy, West European Politics, and Review of International Studies.

Reviews
This is an impressively scholarly account of an underappreciated aspect of the global financial crisis: whether governments can ever adequately incentivise bank behaviour that does not pose systemic risks. Macartney is guided by his fieldwork findings to argue that even well-intentioned interventions designed to change the culture of systemically important banks are likely to falter in the face of the riches that global financial markets continue to offer. A wonderful, compelling read. * Matthew Watson, Professor of Political Economy, University of Warwick *
The Bank Culture Debate marks a significant step forward in our understanding of the crises in Financial services. It shows that the financialisation' of the AngloAmerican model of banking shows a deep structural fault line that a focus on culture and conduct goes only a fraction of the way to address. A must read for anyone wanting to understand both the last crisis... and the next one. * Martin Wheatley, Former Chief Executive of the Financial Conduct Authority *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198843764
Author Huw Macartney
Format Hardback
Page Count 302
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 620g
Dimensions(mm) 241mm * 162mm * 24mm