Banker bashing

One would think that Swiss fondness for banks and banking was one of those eternal verities, but a survey suggests otherwise:


The plain people of Switzerland, or at least 500 of them, were asked by Ifop 'whether, in general terms, the image they have of banks is very good, good, bad or very bad'.  And lo and indeed behold, some 35% think badly of banks and their bankers.  Whereas, by point of comparison, 21% of Americans and 51% of French thought likewise.  I've been irked by banks in the past, but would probably answer 'very good', in that I am rather pleased that we have banking as such, the detail of the incompetence, laziness etc of some practitioners nothwithstanding.

Anyway, onwards to seek out Satan in the smallprint:

50-64 year olds are the most likely to have a very bad image of banks, compared to a Swiss norm of 3%.  That's a lot of bounced cheques, incomprehensible call centre staff and grim hold music, no?  Odder still, the equivalent of ABC1s (CSP+) are more hostile - 5% - than C2DEs - 3% - or the retired etc - 3%.

And at the other end of the scale, where is the love? Some 23% of 18-24 year olds have a 'very good' image of banks, nigh on triple the 8% national norm.  Might this be because they still remember the free biro from Appenzeller Kantolbank when daddy took him or her along to open a new account?  Mysterious...  German speakers are more inclined to very/good than Francophones at 9% to 6%.

Asked how they felt about their own bank, Swiss, French and American interviewees all quite liked their own financial stronghold with 87%, 77% and 89% respectively regarding them as very/good.

Subsequently, our fortunate Swiss chums were asked to yay say or nay say to sundry bank-related statements:

Does the banking sector contribute strongly to the Swiss economy?  86% said yes, while a moronic 14% 'thought' otherwise.  And now for something really scary:  'The banks should be placed under state control' (presumably meaning that they should be stolen from the shareholders) - 51% were anti and 49% pro.  And in France 56% wanted the same as did 57% of Americans.  Saints preserve us.

What the relevant EU commissar has to say about that idiotic insurance ruling

The relevant commissar being Viviane Reding, who has moved on from Media etc to 'Justice' and shows about as much sense as before:

"Today is an important moment for gender equality in the European Union.... the EU’s Court of Justice ruled that different insurance premiums for women and men constitute sex discrimination and are not compatible with the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights...The insurance industry will certainly be affected by the ruling. For products such as life assurance and annuities, all 27 EU countries currently allow insurers to use sex as a risk-rating factor. However, I also would like to underline that parts of the insurance industry have already started to move in the direction of gender equality. Insurers have already shown flexibility as Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Slovenia apply unisex premiums for car insurance. (So all the heavy hitters then...QG) In the light of today's judgement, I call on insurers across the EU to follow this good example regarding all insurance contracts".

While I would far rather do away with charters of rights - 'Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense — nonsense upon stilts' - if we must have them, perhaps a charter for corporations might include the right to go about the evaluation and pricing of risk based on proven actuarial facts.