Since banking was invented, it has never been a profession for those who like to be loved. The image of the banker has generally been of a stiff-necked, unbending type (like Shylock), or occasionally softened (as for Captain Mainwaring of ‘Dad’s Army’) to that of a pompous and bumbling one. But in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-8, the image has been daubed with darker colours. Bankers are now seen as embodiments of insatiable greed, and are despised not merely by those who are critical