The past year has seen the reputation of banks sink to its lowest level in living memory. The banks touched in one way or another by scandal are a roll call of institutions once considered to be among the proudest names in the world of finance. True, the wrong-doing in many cases goes back some years, but it is the revelation of the sheer number of scandals and the apparent involvement, in some cases, of senior management in office at that time that is politically poisonous and continues to