In the service of Mammon

The Libor scandal continues to shock, prompting bewilderment as well as disgust. The mood has turned against the City, with the FT suggesting that it ‘may be necessary to retire this generation of flawed leaders.’  In the piece below, Geraint Anderson, a former stockbroker and whistleblower, explains why his latest book, Payback Time, a story of people taking revenge on a bank they blame for their friend’s suicide, was inspired by the self-loathing caused by working for Mammon and the divisiveness which the crash has caused.     

I did not write Payback Time for the money. This is not an attack on my publisher’s generosity, but a reflection of the fact that they cannot match the preposterously large bonuses my City bosses used to hand me every year.

There is an element of Catholic guilt lurking in my psyche. As a City banker, I spent twelve years knowing that I was playing for the wrong team; but I was paid bigger and bigger bonuses and, like some doomed gangster in a film noir, I kept on convincing myself to do ‘one last job’ to earn one last bonus.