In Italy, corporate executives are held legally responsible for a company's actions.
The "donor meetings" between the state commissioners and company executives were held all afternoon in a conference room.
Government's demands for corporate accountability are only credible if government executives are held accountable as well.
Lars-Eric Petersson, the former chief executive of the financial services company Skandia, was questioned by Swedish police yesterday after two former executives were held last week on suspicion of breach of trust over the use of corporate assets.
Swiss bank UBS, the biggest continental European casualty of the credit crunch, has devised a novel "bonus-malus" system under which bonuses for the top executives are held back to discourage risk taking.
In an interview last week, shortly after he rejected a settlement between the agency and the bank that was meant to put the matter to rest, he remembered a time when executives were held more directly accountable for actions taken by their companies.
Rather than simply trying to deter breaches of the law with higher penalties, Turc has recommended driving out the leaders of unions in breach in a way that goes far beyond the standard of individual responsibility to which corporate directors and executives are held.
Should financial executives be held legally responsible for financial crashes?
If the Fed and Treasury can "foam the runway" to protect otherwise insolvent banks from collapse, they surely could insure that a multi-billion dollar bank survives while the executives are held personally responsible for their crimes.
