An Industry That Touches Every Life Can't Afford to Lose Its Soul

or... We're Saving All This Time - What Are We Doing With It?

Banking touches every household, every business, and every single community. Whether we acknowledge it or not, it shapes the stability of families as well as the fate of organisations and the well-being of nations. That makes commercial banking a privilege, not an entitlement. It's actually a civic role disguised as a commercial enterprise (essentially because it originally came about in “free” markets, not due to government edict).

But are we in danger of forgetting some of our most important responsibilities? We are optimising for speed, volume, and technical complexity. At the same time, we are asking the human beings inside our systems to move faster, make quicker decisions, and perhaps to feel less.

The result is a paradox. Banks are becoming more technologically advanced and more efficient, but not necessarily wiser.

Banco BIC, still open for business in a bombed-out office, Luanda 2017

If the banking industry is to retain an image of integrity in society, we need to set standards built not just on process or regulation, but on human values that anchor good practice. Yes, ”The first principle of good banking is to have principles.” I suggest there are four evergreen standards; you may want to add more of your own.

1. Judgement

Were custodians of people's lives, as well as operators of financial machinery. Banking decisions are never neutral. A declined loan can change a family's trajectory. A poorly designed product can worsen inequality. (Not to mention a “mis-sold” product hurting the customer outcome…).

For decades, some in the industry have acted as though these decisions were mechanical, as if algorithms could replace judgment and checklists could replace conscience. But humanity isn't a soft metric.

Human-led banking recognises vulnerability, applies moral judgement, considers context, allows for discretion, and accepts responsibility for outcomes. And crucially, it selects senior executives of character, not just of competence. Because without the right people in decision-making roles, people who believe in fairness and not just efficiency, no process will save us. Human judgement isn't a luxury; it's a crucial unit of trust.

2. Clarity

Clarity is a form of respect, just as transparency is a form of service. In too many boardrooms and customer journeys, communication has become a way to obscure. I've sat through board meetings where the slide deck was longer than a novella, but still managed to say less. I've seen risk reports so dense they could be used as blunt-force weapons. I've watched committees mistake noise for insight, and “strategy” consultants deliver presentations that feel like they're trying to win a prize for talking the longest while saying the least. ”Failure is not an option!” One consultant actually said that when presenting at a Board meeting I attended! Unless you're Col. Gene Kranz or otherwise employed at NASA Mission Control, using that expression only reveals you to be a snake-oil-selling charlatan.

Good banks communicate better because they say important things in plain language:

• They answer the question actually asked

• They avoid empty language that hides accountability

• They treat customers like adults, not liabilities

• They value brevity over theatrics

Communication is not a compliance tool but a moral practice. Trust grows when people feel spoken to, not spoken at.

Clarity is a form of respect

3. Trust

Faster isn't always better; sometimes, faster is just that. Modern banking worships speed: instant approvals, instantaneous payments, "decisioning" (sic) in seconds, AI-powered onboarding. But no one asks the obvious question: What are we doing with the time we’re saving?

If the answer is move even faster, then we've built nothing, only accelerated the loss of reflection, patience, and wisdom.

Speed is useful when it reduces anxiety, improves fairness, increases clarity, or saves customers from real hardship. But speed becomes dangerous when it replaces understanding, removes human oversight, prioritises volume over care, or compresses complex decisions into binary outputs.

Designing for trust means designing for comprehensibility, fairness, emotional reassurance, and the ability to pause and think. A system is trustworthy not because it's fast, but because its decisions feel fair, deliberate, and human.

4. Proximity

The larger the system, the greater the responsibility to remain human. Scale gives banks power, but it also creates distance. Distance between executives and customers, between decisions and consequences, between risk frameworks and actual reality.

We’ve seen how large organisations can drift into mediocrity, bureaucracy, performative compliance, empire building, and leadership personas instead of leadership presence. But size itself isn't the problem. Culture is the atmosphere people breathe when no one is watching, and scale shouldn't take the oxygen out of the room. Problems show up when you lose emotional proximity, the ability to know the customer, the employee, the risk, and your impact.nbsp;

Trusted banks, regardless of size, maintain openness rather than secrecy, cultural humility rather than corporatism, two-way communication rather than broadcast mode, and leadership accessibility rather than leadership theatre.

This is why some banks feel like a five-star airline, and some feel like a “budget” airline. With said airline, you get your cheap flight, and you get to your destination. But the moment something goes wrong, you discover there's no human being with the power to help you. Just a black box with a set of rules and a very long wait.

It’s almost amusing to watch some banks stack up customers and unicorn valuations while struggling to do something as orthodox as secure a banking licence within a reasonable time frame. (Or indeed even file their accounts on time). It was intriguing to hear a bank exec discuss moving abroad when the UK regulator expects senior execs to actually be in the country. Is living in the country that has awarded the licence so unreasonable? Or now that we are all “hybrid,” I guess it is no longer an issue where senior execs are based. Maybe proximity is no longer such an issue? For me though, it always will be.

Banking as a Civic Privilege

At the heart of these four standards is this simple idea: banking is a privilege because it shapes human lives. It's not only a technical function or a profit engine. It's a public trust, even when privately owned.

Communicating clearly and openly builds trust

The industry won't gain trust through more regulation, more dashboards, more AI, more committees, or more complexity. It will gain trust when it rediscovers its core responsibilities. To treat people fairly, not because regulation requires it, but because its the right thing to do. To communicate clearly, not because a policy mandates it, but because clarity respects the human on the other side. To design systems that empower judgment, not replace it. To build cultures where leaders are chosen for character as much as capability. To remember, always, that every decision touches a life.

When banking returns to this principle, it becomes not just functional, or profitable, or efficient, but noble. It’s rediscovered its soul. Thats what the public deserves, and what the best banks will be known for.

Going forward….

In banking, having technical knowledge is one thing; knowing how to apply it under pressure is another. The Principles of Banking includes real-world examples, technical frameworks, and universal takeaways that professionals can immediately apply in their day-jobs. But there’s no need to take my word for it:

“The Principles of Banking is easily the most important text for anyone in banking today and should be required reading for all personal development plans. When I was a regulator at the UK Financial Services Authority, managing the Change In Control team, I was responsible for assessing and granting regulatory approvals for complex banking transactions, such as Virgin Money’s takeover of Northern Rock. I relied heavily on Professor Choudhry’s text as a reference throughout the banking license approval process. “Since then, I have referenced his book often, as a guide continuously during my career in banking as regulator, consultant, investor, CRO and now on the strategy/commercial side, and crucially while setting up a new bank and going through the bank license approval process myself.” —Nihar Mehta, Chief Corporate Development Officer, Monument Bank Ltd, London

For beginners and veterans alike, this book will act as a reference point, guide, and friend.

📚 Explore The Anthology 💥 20% off with code ANT20

📘 DiscoverThe Principles of Banking 💥 30% off with code PBC2E