Platform: There's more to bank morals than taming fat cats

Banking morality – is that the ultimate financial oxymoron? After the crisis, how far have we moved forward in controlling the banks we own or supported because they are too big to fail? The fault is often laid at the doors of morality-free fat-cat bankers – but ensuring morality in the markets is not just the responsibility of bankers, but of the wider community.

The meltdown and government support caused gasps of pain from many who had taken no steps to rein in these banking excesses. The tax take supported what now looks like profligate government spending, the regulators and agencies established a comfortable relationship and consumers happily gorged on credit.

Two years on, it's a bit like volcanic ash: at first the fear of falling out the sky was paramount, but when the insurance company says it's not paying and the airlines are close to running out of cash, everyone want the old days back – let's just fly and get home.

So by analogy, why are the banks not lending more?

Welcome to the world of banking morals. Rather than scoring easy political points on nationalisation or excessive remuneration we need to build a robust and professional banking system. A moral banking sector needs to be based on what we want the banks to do rather than scoring political points. It cannot be about ad hoc taxes and regulations. It's about commanding the two drivers that have caused banks to fail over centuries – capital and liquidity. Everything else is posturing. Moral banks sit between depositors and borrowers to the economic wellbeing of the UK. Moral banks are major employers, taxpayers and a key element of investments that make our pension promises possible.

That is why morality in banking is much deeper than the targets currently focused on. Have well-trained managers, effectively supervised and holding sufficient capital and liquidity – but remember that all of that involves a cost, and that will make finance more expensive for us all. Morality is always a two-sided equation.

• Clark McGinn is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland.