Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has lashed out at the world’s big banks.
He hit out at failures in lending standards, risk management and corporate governance in major institutions around the world.
“In fact, obscene failures in corporate governance rewarded greed without any regard to the integrity of the financial system.”
“These failures weren’t limited just to businesses on the margins of the financial system. They happened in our major global financial institutions – the Wall Street investment banks that were the pillars of the global financial system.”
Mr Rudd says the system has been reduced to panic and pushed to the brink resulting in a comprehensive failure of “extreme capitalism”.
“As a Government and as a nation we must respond to the twin evils which are at the root of this malaise – greed and fear.”