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'Foreign capital' attacks
helpless Japanese banks -a Tokyo daily's take on
the CSFP episode |
Picture the scene. You are on Tokyo's Ginza Street, a crowded four-lane highway that's the site of some of the world's busiest department stores. It's 3pm on a Saturday and a vehicle is driving in the middle of the road blaring out an order over its loudspeaker. All the cars quickly leave and old ladies in straw hats appear. They put tables, chairs and parasols in the middle of the road. Only three minutes earlier that would have meant certain death.
Something remarkably similar happened to the Credit Suisse Group in Japan. Picture Credit Suisse merrily driving down a four-lane road, with other banks motoring along behind. The law says the way the Swiss firm is driving is okay, and others are moving along in the same way. Then a regulator tootles down the road and blares out an order that is loud but maybe not very clear. Other cars start turning off and soon Credit Suisse is the last vehicle on a remarkably empty road. Then it knocks down and severely injures an old lady in a straw hat carrying a table. After a six-month investigation it is banned from driving in Japan again.
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Ignoring Japan's unwritten
rules can prove fatal -
especially on Ginza street |
Credit Suisse's recent treatment raises many questions. No-one would suggest it is blameless, but it was certainly unfortunate. Its staff shredded documents during an investigation - which was wholly wrong - but the crime for which it was singled out - the sale of products designed to hide balance-sheet losses - wasn't even illegal. And every foreign firm was peddling such products. Credit Suisse's problem was that it wasn't heeding the little car blaring out garbled instructions in Japanese.
