Bank regulators facilitated, even empowered, financiers to turn their back on the forces of equality.

Sir, John Kay writes about how the share of finance professionals in the growing top 1 percent share of all income has grown dramatically, “How financiers turned back the forces of equality" Wednesday 7.

Kay holds that results from “the growth of the finance sector; and the explosion of the remuneration of senior executives”.

To that, at least in the case of banks, and which set the tone for the whole sector, we would have to add: The lower the capital requirements the smaller is the relative importance of shareholders, and so the larger the availability for the remuneration of professionals. And that becomes especially important when the markets perceive, that governments will to a very large degree step in and defend the banks if they run into problems.

And so let’s retitle it. Bank regulators facilitated, even empowered, financiers to turn their back on the forces of equality.