You can Bank on it!

The idea of Banking has certainly changed over the years.  The Banks used to be regarded as a venerable institution.  But now, Banks and bankers are seen as a greedy, gouging scourge on society.  It's not like they don't deserve that reputation either!

From the recent world-wide financial crisis, precipitated by deregulation and the institutions' own inability to police itself, to here in Canada where our Banking system remained relatively intact -- we have recently been disgusted with the Royal Banks' treatment of their employees who were expected to train their own replacements before being let go.
http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/04/08/hamilton-rbc-facebook.html

Back when I was little, banks seemed like very respectable places. When I was in Grade One, our teacher sent a letter home to our parents stating that each child would need one dollar to open a savings account at our local bank.  When the day came and we all had our dollar bills, we marched en masse from our school down the street to the Bank of Nova Scotia.  Each one of us opened our first savings account.  What a perfect first lesson in civics and early economics.  I had the joy of watching my small deposits accumulate interest at quite a significant rate.

I used that account to save for buying Christmas presents for my family, and later to deposit my revenues from babysitting and other jobs.  My favourite teller had a head for numbers and knew my account number better than I did. She still remembered it, after I moved away and only came back for summer holidays! That branch (now known as Scotiabank) is closed now "in order to serve us better" so they said. (?)

This was all I knew about banking as a child.  You put money in the bank and as it acquired interest, the amount kept growing. If only it were still that simple!  That was also in the days before bank fees gobbled up more than the pittance of interest they are giving for savings accounts nowadays.

Ahhh!  If only things were like the good old days! 

British Bank Singalong from Disney's Mary Poppins

Two Scenes from Mary Poppins

Fidelity Fiduciary Bank Song

I guess some bankers were greedy back then too!


This commercial is a great portrayal of how the banking community is viewed today.

Capital One commercial "You've Got Bankers!"

And I can't resist sharing Rick Mercer's take on Canada's Banks. 
Of course it's a few years old now, but still good for a laugh!

 Rick Mercer (2009)



 Here's an Australian spoof which attempts to explain 
The Reserve Bank:

Newstopia Explains the Reserve Bank (2008)



  Is it any wonder that with what has been going on in the world that someone would want to murder a banker? 
Here is an episode from the first season of the BBC's Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch which is about the murder of a banker.  But there is another reason I am showing you this clip. (Hint: it is in the last few seconds of the video)

Sherlock BBC: The Blind Banker / by GriddlePop


If you were watching closely, you would see a character in this episode is the same actress who starred with Richard Armitage in The Golden Hour.  In this program Zoe Telford plays Watson's girlfriend.

 Zoe Telford in The Golden Hour (top) and Sherlock (bottom)

In Spooks (MI-5) series 7 episode 5, Richard Armitage plays the role of a banker while the Grid is spying on a millionaire high roller who is toying with Britain's banking system so he can make more millions on the resulting mayhem.  RichardArmitageOnline.com has a great pictorial summary of this episode here.  Also on this website is a video clip of one of my favourite scenes. Ros and Lucas are posing as an engaged couple.  They certainly look lovely together!

The following is a fan made video of the same episode meant to be a spoof of an actual bank's commercial.  Their real life motto is "which bank?"

Which Bank [spooks] style / by DeltaTango45



Fans of Richard Armitage are familiar with his voice overs for Santander.  But this vidder has gone one further and turned another Spooks episode into a Santander commercial.
(Thanks to NotEvenanOuch for reuploading this video just the other day!)

Richard Armitage reads ''Santander" advert / by NotEvenAnOuch



And that's not all!
Fellow blogger CDoart wrote a fan fic about RA 
which begins in a bank.

My money is on Richard Armitage.  
I have certainly invested a lot of time admiring him! ;)