“I’m going to write today about your guardian angel. The chances are you’ve never heard of him but he’s worked courageously these past two years to protect your living standards and quite possibly even your job. His name is Robert Jenkins and he’s been an external member of the Bank of England’s banking watchdog, the Financial Policy Committee (FPC).

“Since July 2011 Mr Jenkins has made it his purpose in life to get our largest banks to build up their safety buffers, also known as their capital. Recall that the last time our big lenders slashed those buffers to thin cushions they crashed the entire economy and required a £1 trillion public bailout to prevent even worse damage occurring. We’re all still suffering from the effects of that meltdown, as the longest squeeze on living standards since the 1920s stretches on.

“There is a reminder of what went wrong in 2008 in the Banking Commission’s latest report, which focuses on the failure of HBOS. It is a tale of a once prudent bank destroyed by reckless and greedy individuals, whose behaviour was abetted by incompetent and spineless regulators.”

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