I am amazed that nobody seems to have taken up the idea of creating a new bank – we all agree that the combination of – President Clinton’s mortgage free for all, Wall Street’s greed in thinly slicing up bad debts to make them even worse, plus Brown’s fatal attraction of spending taxpayers money in exactly the wrong places – has caused a terminal and possibly incurable problem for existing banks. The toxic past will not be easily cleaned out, certainly not by retiring flowers like Obama and Brown, nor I suspect by the current breed of bank “professionals” too scared to come clean.

Wasting our children’s money on dubious ventures is not the answer. Now in any other enterprise when things get so bad a new company would have been created – a new brand if you like – there is plenty of money around, printers who print money have never been so busy – we simply are suffering from a lack of confidence caused by what has happened in the past. We need a new place to start from – somewhere to put our hard earned cash and feel that it will give us a fair return – we need a place that has no toxic past, one that can start from scratch – a solid bank which keeps its promises – one that has no past mistakes because they have no past! So let’s create a new bank, several new banks – with a new mission, one that we can all sign on to – a bank that lends to people and businesses that have a good chance of repaying their loans, one that treats savers with the respect and admiration they deserve, a bank with operating rules that have integrity and prudence at their heart.

What about the existing banks you might ask? Well they have had their day, some will go bust – most already are – and some may turnaround and be healthier, especially with the new kids on the block banks with no toxic debt, no bad history and a clean image, as their new competition. At the moment our banks have as competitors banks that have the same problems as they do – there is no alternative for savers and investors today except to place their cash with banks who have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted.

So that’s it then – let’s start a new bank and just you watch – as millions of investors and savers queue up to invest their money. The new Bank(s) will set a new climate and standards for banking in the future – with a bit of luck they might even turn the clock back to a day when bankers were respected.

Let’s stop wasting our money and time with banks whose only salvation lies not with their management and skills but with borrowing from Governments, let’s support the new bank - and have confidence in banking once more, and be off with you to all Governments – leave our children’s money alone – you will only make matters worse.