Our banks are on the rocks because their executives looted them and their boards let them get away with it. Outfits like AIG, RBS, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch were a disgrace – a profound example of the agency problem in action. Dispersed shareholdings and misaligned incentives meant many of the senior staff were on a “heads I win, tails the bank loses” deal. A true sense of ownership and obligation was missing. So, vastly respected businesses with enormous assets, massive market shares, glorious histories and huge employee numbers were brought to the edge of bankruptcy. Perhaps in previous eras there was a greater sense of responsibility and prudence among their leaders, and the financial services industry was a simpler, less international affair.

I worked in financial services in the 1980s, as an analyst at a stockbroker called Grieveson Grant. It was a partnership then, which meant opportunities for enrichment, but also significant obligations. It prospered, as did its proprietors, but the firm never overextended itself, and in hard times partners' drawings were nil. But then it was sold to a series of progressively larger banks, and it was eventually defenestrated. Corporatism eviscerated the institution and it withered – no one had enough of a stake any more to care.

Certain institutions bring out the best in people. Magdalen College, which I attended at Oxford, is 551 years old. It has survived thanks to the generosity of its founders and supporters, and solid stewardship over the centuries. Trustees, academics, alumni and other stakeholders have been conscientious and have always believed that Magdalen mattered and that it would outlive them.