In the psychiatrist's chair

I'm by no means the first to suggest this, but it is estimated that 1% of the population have pyschopathic tendencies, and thus it is entirely possible that some are working in banking.

The Hare Test for Psychopathy requires an assessment of 20 characteristics, attracting a scores of either 0, 1 or 2. A score of 30 or above suggests a diagnosis of psychopathy. People with no criminal backgrounds would normally score 5 or less.  Try a little anthropomorphism;  imagine your bank as a person and see what score you'd give them.

Factor 1: Personality “Aggressive narcissism”

1 Glibness/superficial charm
2 Grandiose sense of self-worth
3 Pathological lying
4 Cunning/manipulative
5 Lack of remorse or guilt
6 Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and egocentric)
7 Callous/lack of empathy
8 Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Factor 2: Case history “Socially deviant lifestyle”.

9 Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
10 Parasitic lifestyle
11 Poor behavioural control
12 Lack of realistic long-term goals
13 Impulsivity
14 Irresponsibility
15 Juvenile delinquency
16 Early behaviour problems
17 Revocation of conditional release

Traits not correlated with either factor

18 Promiscuous sexual behaviour
19 Many short-term marital relationships
20 Criminal versatility

• 2300 Sunday update: A learned correspondent has pointed me to stats which suggest the figure in banking might be as high as 10%.