Annemarie van Gaal has no patience with bankers who say sorry, especially incompetent ones

There are men who run away, men who get angry and men who bluster. There’s nothing wrong with that. But beware of the men who say sorry.

The first Dutch banker to apologise for the role of the banks in the present crisis is Floris Deckers who was forced out as CEO of Van Lanschot Bankers.

Brilliant

The CEO of Dutch central bank DNB, Klaas Knot, was unusually candid about a number of things during the Financieele Dagblad financial dinner last month. His comment about financial sector salaries was especially interesting. The banks ‘first responsibility is to make sure they shore up their buffers’, he said.

He suggested one way of doing this is by cutting back on their more than generous remuneration system: ‘Salaries in the financial world have developed in a slightly different way from those in manufacturing, for example. Until the financial crisis we thought this had to do with the superiority of people who come up with brilliant financial products..’

This raised a big laugh, for as we now know only too well the banking world isn’t peopled by lots of brilliant men thinking up brilliant products but mainly by men who say sorry and then continue on their merry way.

Bonus

Last year was an expensive one for Van Lanschot. Decker’s successor received a bonus for signing up for the top post and Deckers himself got one for going along with a ‘mutually agreeable dismissal’. The combined bill came to €1.5m.

This for a company which lost €155m in that same year because of ill-advised take-overs by the same former genius. 2012 was also the year in which many loyal clients were ditched because they on longer complied with the Van Lanschot objective of only dealing with companies with ‘at least a €5m turnover’. The bank was sure their loyal clients would understand they had to look elsewhere because ‘a clear objective is vital for good business practice’. Of course. Deckers: ‘Putting the client first is what we are here for.’

Vision

2013 is going to be another expensive year because while his successor has long since settled into the job and Deckers is nowhere to be seen, the latter will still be receiving his handsome salary until later this year. After that he will be available as an adviser, for a guaranteed fee of course. Our Floris earned over €10m in his nine years at Van Lanschot, risk free but brilliantly of course.

He did say sorry for leaving at such a low point in his career. He has vision and knows what to do to help the Netherlands get out of the slump but no one will let him. Sorry, Floris Deckers.

Annemarie van Gaal is an entrepreneur and head of AM Media. She is also a writer and television personality.