They have lost their credibility, their trustworthiness, before the world.
The BBC's rating for trustworthiness, a figure rightly much scrutinised at the BBC, will inevitably suffer a big dent, and the decision by the now-sidelined Peter Rippon, Newsnight's editor, not to air an investigation into Savile last December will doubtless take a few more percentage points off the figure.
Dannatt described the service as "a beacon of trustworthiness".
However, high-profile affairs such as phone-tapping at News International, corporate scandals at Olympus and Siemens, or the shenanigans over British MPs' expenses, suggest that not everybody ranks trust and trustworthiness as a work priority.
Firstly there is the paradox of teaching people how to fake trustworthiness.
Objectively assessing a firm's trustworthiness can help them strengthen the way it operates.
Consumers no longer see it as a sign of trustworthiness and authority.
Age can by itself confer a sense of trustworthiness: brewers and bankers are fond of flaunting deep roots.
They must project the trustworthiness of a chief financial officer, but also have a talent for creative book-keeping.
In descending order of trustworthiness, the A category includes Britain and Norway; B takes in Germany and France; C refers to the likes of Russia and China.
The room is a reminder to executives that they are guardians of an institution that is older than most, and a shrine to the prudence and trustworthiness the bank would like to be known for.
