VIDEO: Global banking system was ‘two hours’ from a total collapse: former UK chancellor Darling speaks
The global banking system was just “two hours” from a total collapse according to the former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling.
Darling was speaking as the keynote speaker on the second day of the three day InvestmentEurope Pan European Fund Selector Summit in Hamburg where he discussed the lasting consequences of the 2008 banking crisis, the impact of monetary policy and prospects for Brexit.
Darling, who served as a chancellor during the 2008 financial crisis, also placed the outcome of the British vote to leave the EU firmly in the context of the lasting effects of the crisis. Pointing to the persistence of economic inequalities between rural and urban parts of the UK, with the latter more likely to vote leave, he argued: “It was not referendum on the EU as such but an expression of people who felt marginalised, which is why a mere treaty change won’t be enough.”
Watch the video below for a taste of the InvestmentEurope event, which finishes later today. It also features a short section of Darling’s revealing keynote speech where he outlines how total disaster was closely averted during conversations with RBS bosses during the 2008 UK government bail out.
A longer version of Darling’s speech and other videos will be released next week on the website of International Investment’s sister title InvestmentEurope on www.investmenteurope.net
