28 min
Recovery Special Podcast: Ian Marcus on Lehman, “spreadsheet hell” and who read the cycle best No Title
-
- Investing
“The art of good banking isn’t lending money. It’s making sure it gets repaid.”
Those are the words of former Credit Suisse head of investment banking Ian Marcus, who spoke in a wide-ranging interview on the Property Week Podcast to mark the five-year anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ collapse.
Marcus, who was chair of the Bank of England’s Commercial Property Forum at the time, and is now a senior adviser to US bank Wells Fargo, said the industry had an “obligation” to see what lessons could be learnt from the downturn.
He said: “We’ll never get rid of the cyclicality, but hopefully we can avoid some of the excesses by smoothing it.”
Looking back at the culture of over-exuberant lending in the banking crisis, he said that that “there were words of caution and warning signs but it was in a typical low-key British way”.
“It was about being invited for cucumber sandwiches and maybe hinting that things were perhaps moving too fast,” he said.
“The art of good banking isn’t lending money. It’s making sure it gets repaid.”
Those are the words of former Credit Suisse head of investment banking Ian Marcus, who spoke in a wide-ranging interview on the Property Week Podcast to mark the five-year anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ collapse.
Marcus, who was chair of the Bank of England’s Commercial Property Forum at the time, and is now a senior adviser to US bank Wells Fargo, said the industry had an “obligation” to see what lessons could be learnt from the downturn.
He said: “We’ll never get rid of the cyclicality, but hopefully we can avoid some of the excesses by smoothing it.”
Looking back at the culture of over-exuberant lending in the banking crisis, he said that that “there were words of caution and warning signs but it was in a typical low-key British way”.
“It was about being invited for cucumber sandwiches and maybe hinting that things were perhaps moving too fast,” he said.
28 min