Leading UCD Economist Colm McCarthy is saying on RTÉ tonight that despite all the miles of newspaper columns and hours of air time given to the problem of the banks, and the intensive study he has made of the subject, he still doesn't fully understand what happened to the bankers. Well it is quite easy really, Colm, they became pimps.

Some of us remember the days when the bank manager in the town was someone of substance, a man (and it was always a man!) who commanded respect, not only because of the position he held, but because of personal qualities. These qualities were usually in the areas of steadiness, intelligence, and the ability to read people accurately and assess risk.

We should have known the wheels were coming off about fifteen years ago when we began hearing them talking about selling us 'products' ,as opposed to giving us loans. Since when was a loan a 'product' to be aggressively marketed at everyone who walked in the door?

The banks sent all their staff on sales training courses, so that everyone from a student to a pensioner became a 'lead'. If you asked about a deposit account, you were to be told about all the wonderful 'products' you could be eligible for – a tidy little loan for the laptop of your dreams, a short term 'product' for a holiday in the sun, a five year plan for a new car, nothing at all was out of reach from a kitchen extension to a new house, at home or abroad.

International money was flowing into the country and the banks couldn't wait to give it out to us, touting their wares with all the subtlety and style of a pimp running a brothel.

The local bank manager lost his power, and his discretion to gauge humankind. Answering to his paymasters in Dublin, who had thumb screws attached in the form of steep targets, he instructed his staff to sell, and to keep selling, to any John who came through the door.