**A year after Lehman Brothers collapsed, a think-tank has warned the lessons of the crisis have not been learned.**The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says the rapid return to the City’s bonus culture shows real reform has been “very limited”.
The warnings echoed a speech by US President Barack Obama, who warned of complacency in the banking sector.
Also, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that there was “unfinished business” with the banking sector.
“Alarm bells should be ringing with the early signs of a ‘back to business’ attitude in the City and little evidence that policymakers are taking measures to ensure the next economic recovery is better balanced than the last one,” said Tony Dolphin, senior economist at the IPPR.
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The report warned that unless urgent action is taken, the banking crisis may not be the last of its type.
‘Reckless behaviour’
On Monday, President Obama issued a warning to banks that were ignoring the lessons of the financial crisis.
“We will not go back to the days of reckless behaviour and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis,” he said.
He called on Wall Street to support “the most ambitious overhaul of the financial system since the Great Depression”.
It came as Mr Brown said he was determined that world leaders meeting in Pittsburgh next week would “complete the unfinished business” of cleaning up banks - including establishing rules on bonuses.
In a BBC interview to mark a year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, he said global action was needed to clean up the sector.
The IPPR also said that greater international co-operation was needed and suggested that might be achieved if countries such as China and India were given a bigger role in bodies such as the International Monetary Fund.
It called for internationally-agreed principles of banking regulation that would lead to a financial system that would operate in the interests of the whole economy.
Bail-outs
Lehman Brothers, once the fourth-largest US investment bank, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the early hours of 15 September 2008.
At the same time, Bank of America announced it was taking over Merrill Lynch to rescue it from bankruptcy.
Governments around the world have had to pump billions of pounds into their banking sectors to prevent their collapse.
There is now concern that as the banks start to recover, they have not taken the necessary steps to prevent a repeat of the crisis.
One of the suggestions is that a change to the bonus system would prevent short-term risk-taking and such changes are due to be discussed by the G20 leaders at their summit in Pittsburgh.