The Principles of Banking, 2nd Edition

Preface

In his book A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles, Mark Hertsgaard writes:

Artistic greatness depends not only on aesthetic excellence but also on personal style; there must be something in the art that makes it unique to the artist who created it.

(Dell Publishing, 1995, p. 163)

One might think that an author writing about such dry and dispassionate subjects as banking and finance may struggle to stamp an immediately identifiable and unique imprint on their work, so uniform and plain is the field on which the work is based. But that would be inaccurate: finance, and banking, are much closer to art than science than is generally recognised, and so in theory at least, the artist in this space has an opportunity to create timeless, or at least memorable, work. Very few issues, and fewer problems, in banking have only one solution to them. There is no “one size fits all” framework, and an approach or business model that works well in one bank may struggle to deliver adequately in another bank. Look closely at any group of firms in question and there is, if not infinite, certainly considerable variety.

So from this author's perspective, finance and banking are not precise sciences. In fact, I would question whether banking is a science at all. There is always more than one feasible solution to practically every problem that arises when running a bank (or working in a bank – many problems one encounters get nowhere near the executive committee, let alone ...