- 256 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
In 1995 Bank of Scotland celebrated 300 years as Britain's oldest commercial bank. Voted 'most admired bank', respected by competitors, applauded by investors and trusted by customers, it looked forward to the next three hundred. Less than 15 years later it was bust, reviled as part of the spectacular collapse of HBOS, the conglomerate it had joined. One of the high-profile victims of the credit crunch, its spectacular fall caused seismic shock waves throughout the financial world. What went wrong?
Ray Perman, who has followed the Bank since the 1970s when he was a Financial Times journalist, uncovered the story from documents and dozens of interviews with people at the top in Bank of Scotland and HBOS - from being the bank of choice for the highrolling Monte Carlo mega-rich to losing GBP10 billion. It is a cautionary tale for our times. In the complex world of modern global finance, the brilliant men who ran the company ignored the simple banking rules that their predecessors learned the hard way three centuries before.
Frequently asked questions
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Author biography
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Dedication page
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Preface to the Paperback Edition
- 1 Banker to the Stars
- 2 Base metal into gold
- 3 A cosy world
- 4 Cometh the hour, cometh the man
- 5 The Cultural Revolution
- 6 The most boring bank in Britain
- 7 A dark land – we need to pray for them
- 8 No turning back at Derby
- 9 Morituri te salutant
- 10 ‘The next thing he does has got to work, otherwise he’s toast’
- 11 Peter’s Last Supper
- 12 A clash of cultures
- 13 Room at the top
- 14 Give me enough debt and I’ll move the world
- 15 As safe as houses
- 16 Ziggy’s stardust
- 17 The eye of the storm
- 18 Apocalypse now
- 19 Nemesis strikes
- 20 Hungry for risk
- 21 Why didn’t they realise?
- 22 The drive for profit at any price
- 23 Why didn’t the regulators stop HBOS?
- 24 The end of history
- 25 Gone, but not forgotten
- 26 Called to account – at last
- 27 Retribution of a sort
- Notes & references
- Bibliography
- Index