Manufacturing Dissent

The 2008 financial crisis severely undermined public trust in banking systems, prompting calls for widespread reform. However, irregularities continued, leading to a further succession of scandals over the following years. We should therefore ask how banks justified the catastrophe and their failure to reform. This chapter examines two large UK-based banks: Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and HSBC. All the “letters to shareholders” published in their Annual Reports over 15 years are examined for c