Is it not more important to make sure we would want to send our banks flowers?

John Gapper in “Where there’s a will there’s a way” September 24 discusses the issue of having banks draw up their testaments, a will, so as to make their possible disappearance a more orderly affair.

Of course all that sounds so very neat and tidy and reasonable but frankly, before discussing their funeral arrangements should we not give a little bit more thought on how the banks are supposed to live their lives? I mention this since in all the 347 pages of the bank regulations known as Basel II there is not one single phrase, much less a paragraph that has anything to do with establishing a purpose for our banks.

http://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs128.pdf