What does the state want from its banks?
What does the government want? It is a question that many bankers – from board members to executives to the general rank-and-file staffers – have been asking in recent weeks, as the government has sought to influence the state-backed banks on emotive
Does the government yearn for financial institutions that are robust, commercial and profitable, and therefore attractive to international investors? Or does it want something else altogether? Is it, despite public pronouncements to the contrary, secretly looking for banks that are sympathetic to the public mood and malleable to political pressure?
The government can have one or the other. It can have commercial lenders that makes decisions in the best interests of shareholders; or ...
