英国银行家们连声说抱歉
门外是此起彼伏的反抗声，门内是连续不断的抱歉声。“我们真的很抱歉”。英国最大的两家问题银行的四位前任负责人，为了让公众和议会满意，领导们不得不低声下气。对于发生的事件他们也感到很愧疚，所以唯有真心诚意的歉意才能够得到大家的宽容。英国的银行家们也是时候做出自我的一些调整和改变了。
Protest's outside, apology's inside.
"And we are extremely sorry."
The four former bosses of Britain's two biggest troubled banks, the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS, gave a little of what the members of parliament wanted to hear.
the Royal Bank of Scotland（= RBS） 苏格兰皇家银行
HBOS 苏格兰哈里法克斯银行（Halifax and Bank of Scotland，HBOS）
"We are profoundly, and I think I would say unreservedly, sorry at the time of events."
"There is a profound and unqualified apology for all of the distress that has been caused."
These were far cries from mea culpas, none of the four said it was their fault.
But on the day that RBS confirmed that another 2,000 job cuts, the former head, nickname Fred the Shred, for his cost cutting after 140 billion dollars worth of mergers continues to be the focus of a lot of shareholder and union anger.
"It's just too simple if you want to blame it all on me, you want to blame it all on me and close the book, that will get the job done very quickly, but it does not go anywhere close to this, because all of this."
The UK government has spent tens of billions of dollars buying stakes in these banks. The taxpayer now owns 43% of HBOS, which is merged with Lloyds TSB and 68% of RBS. The RBS board was criticised for its takeover of Dutch bank ABN AMRO in 2007, just as the Credit Crunch to acold.
Lloyds TSB 英国劳埃德银行
ABN AMRO 荷兰银行
"At that time, it seemed like a good thing to do, I bought a lot of shares on the day it happened and I thought it was a good thing to do."
Critics say ABN AMRO was a deal too far.
"You are still defending, the great position of the bank on the 16th September, and we are listening here, thinking what I gonna meet it three weeks later, the government has to put in 20 billion pounds to keep that bank going."
The bonus culture also came under scrutiny.
"There is no doubt that the bonus systems in many banks around the world have been proven to be wrong in the last 24 months."
The four men who have explained themselves before parliament on Tuesday all lost their jobs during the crisis. On Wednesday afternoon, it's the turn of those who now run Britain's banks.
Jim Boulden, CNN, London.
