ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the following questions: in what ways can culture change' be conceptualised and understood in the context of banking; and to what extent is such proposed change feasible in the context of a neoliberal-dominated political economy. In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the contribution of the British banks to the crisis has been the subject of a number of official and semi-official investigations. In the United Kingdom (UK), official responses to these problems include the Turner review's Regulatory response', the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) report on RBS, the Vickers report on banking standards, the Wheatley review of the London interbank offered rate (Libor) fixing scandal and the Tyrie Commission's report on banking standards. The environment in which the UK banks operated changed during the 1980s. This was the period of Margaret Thatcher's ideological revolution, which challenged the traditional establishment authority of the old Conservative elite, in favour of meritocracy'.
