This documentary talks about the banking crisis - specifically though this documentary provides a look at how the hit movie "Inside Job" was made; not just a making-of, it goes into some of the issues and talks about how this project was difficult but necessary to bring the key issues to everyone's attention in easy to understand terms.
The award winning documentary 'Inside Job' [2011 | US] by the veteran crusader, Charles Ferguson is the most insightful and illuminating amongst a number of such attempts that deal with the global financial crisis, which is wrecking lives and economies across the world to this day.
The reason is that it successfully challenges the myths and lies surrounding the root causes of the crisis and tells us exactly how and why it happened, in a simple and straightforward way that anyone can understand.
This BBC documentary takes a look at a time when banks and bankers were not under the spell of the "greed is good" mantra. A time where old-timey values such as shame, prudence, and thrift prevented bankers from acting irresponsibly. But the main thing the documentary looks at is the endemic practice of philanthropy, in fact large philanthropic efforts by wealthy bankers lead a trend that resulted in philanthropy becoming the second largest household expense in Britain (of course, before it became institutionalised in the form of the welfare state). The documentary provides an interesting look at the history of banks and bankers in the UK, and probes into the question of whether modern day bankers can learn from the banking and ethical/moral practices of the past to bring in a new age of banking. Can bankers be good again?
A senior executive blows the whistle on the banking industry's usurious lending tactics. This documentary reviews some of the profligate and predatory lending practices of the high street banks in the years of the credit boom which preceded the financial crisis. Indeed this documentary is in a sense chilling given what happened during the global financial crisis; i.e. super easy credit, high pressure to make money, huge incentives for banks to lend easy money. The documentary reviews the sales and marketing tactics, how banks benefited from the lending splurge, and some of the fallout e.g. debt related suicides. This documentary should serve as a case study in banking regulation; not just in terms of procedural regulations but also in terms of higher level macroprudential regulation to curtail excessive credit growth, particularly during unsustainable credit booms. See also (the US version): Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders
"What happens after sorry?" During the financial crisis UK banking giant, RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), revealed the biggest losses in British financial history. The chief of RBS, Fred Goodwin publicly apologised for their part in the banking crisis. Panorama asks "what happens after sorry?" in the wake of significant losses for shareholders, massive job cuts at RBS, and of course the collateral damage to those that RBS did business with. RBS had grown into one of the worlds largest banks through aggressive global expansion via acquisitions (some being smarter than others) and investments and dealing in the US subprime mortgage market. As it turned out the bank had overreached and ultimately got swept up in the global housing and credit bubble... and we all know how that ended. This documentary takes a look at the fallout for RBS and its stakeholders, taking a bit of an Enron type angle in analysing the folly of this financial institution. This is another interesting banking crisis post-mortum documentary See also: RBS - Inside the Bank that Ran Out of Money
This BBC Panorama documentary essentially seeks to answer the question: 'have investment bankers and financial institutions learned any lessons from the meltdown or is it back to the old days?' I would say that it's back to the new days, and certainly this documentary shows the desperation to get back to business as usual - albeit with a few tweaks. Bankers in certain parts of the industry i.e. loan origination and structuring, derivative sales, risk management and treasury, and of course leadership at all levels, certainly deserve criticism for the way they acted or failed to act in the lead up to the crisis. But there is a role for finance in facilitating a strong real economy, it is probably a lot plainer and simpler than much of what presently goes on in finance, but finance i.e. borrowing and lending of surplus funds and provision of transaction services are a social/public good. So while financial institutions do need to do some soul searching, the onus is really on the regulators and politicians to help reshape the industry and the incentives. One key problem is that a lot of investment bankers are not actually bankers in the traditional sense, rather they are agents of profiteering - in the old days it was called merchant banking, and 'investment banks' were partnerships, and 'banks' for the most part just borrowed and lent money; maybe that was a better structure? What do you think? - add your comments below...
This is the movie "Rogue Trader" which is based on the true story of the rogue trader, Nick Leeson, who's poor trades and deceit resulted in the collapse of Barings Bank in the mid 1990's. The movie provides a dramatisation of the events and a look at the personal story of the man who brought down the bank. For clarity, a 'rogue trader' is a trader who is trading outside of their limits (usually hiding losses) and who ends up losing money for the institution at which they work; there have been recent cases of rogue traders e.g. Jerome Kerviel at Societe Generale, and Kweku Adoboli at UBS. Rogue traders often let large losses get out of control by manipulating the compliance and reporting processes. For a documentary on the case of Nick Leeson and Barings Bank, see: 25 Million Pounds
This is more of a drama or entertainment film than a documentary, but it is based on the true story of the failure of Lehman Brothers. It is an interesting, though at times cringe-worthy, look at the events that unfolded in the lead up to one of the most catastrophic financial company bankruptcies. It gives a feel for some of the behind-closed-doors dealings, discussions, tense negotiations and emergency meetings that attempted to weave together a solution or a deal to prevent the collapse. See also: The Fall of Lehman Brothers
RBS was one of the casualties of the financial crisis, chalking up record losses, and requiring a multi-billion dollar bailout from the UK government to prevent the group from going under. This documentary by the BBC details how RBS grew into one of the worlds largest banks through aggressive global expansion via acquisitions; some being smarter than others, and investments and dealing in the US subprime mortgage market. The documentary presents a particularly interesting angle on the financial crisis, and a fascinating insight into what was otherwise an impressive growth story.
The Royal Bank of Scotland was once a famous Scottish institution; a bank with a reputation for prudence. But in October 2008, less than a decade after Fred Goodwin took over as chief executive, it came within hours of collapsing. RBS later posted the biggest loss in UK corporate history - 24 billion pounds - which damaged the bank's reputation for financial prudence and Scotland's image as a global financial centre. Using previously unbroadcast footage of the bank's top executives and interviews with bank insiders, this documentary tells the compelling story of a national catastrophe.
I know what you're thinking: "another global financial crisis video!"... but this gem is not from the sub-prime banking crisis which eventually morphed into the global banking and financial crisis of 2008-9 (which eventually transitioned to a sovereign debt crisis). No, this extremely well done video offers and inside view of the 1980's third world debt crisis. This is truly a must-see documentary, and is utterly eerily similar to what we just saw in the past few years.
This feature documentary reveals how Bank of Montreal chairman William Mulholland dealt with his debt-laden customers Dome Petroleum and Mexico during the global debt crisis of '82. Interviews with bankers and financial experts demystify the causes of debt crisis, confirm the fragility of the international banking system and outline the problems to be solved if the system is to survive.
