This is the second Banana Skins the CSFI has produced.  When trying to decide the topic for this paper, it became obvious that what people really worry about are old-fashioned things like credit controls and the quality of management.

In this paper you will find the perspectives of four top British bankers and a UK corporate treasurer who were asked to recount the lessons they learnt during the early 1990s banking recession in the UK.  Their accounts provide a fascinating insight into the banker's mind - but also into the consequences of poor macro-management by government and the disastrous effect that competition can have on the traditionally well-insulate culture of the clearing banker.

The bankers' accounts suggest that there were three phases to the crisis, each of which produced a different set of pressures:

1. The growing boom (mid to late 1980s)
2. The peak (late 1980s)
3. The slump (early 1990s)

The five articles contain plenty of food for thought.  Any wise banker should keep them at his elbow for the moment when he senses the "feel good factor" creeping up on him.