Lai See | Gulliver protests too much about bank scrutiny

HSBC Holdings chief executive Stuart Gulliver sounded more than a little peeved during the bank's results press conference when he observed in response to questions about its "compliance failures".

"It seems to me that we are holding large corporations to higher standards than the military, the church or civil service - Douglas and I should be aware of everything that is being done within the organisation," said Gulliver, referring to chairman Douglas Flint. "Can I know what every one of 257,000 people is doing - clearly I can't."

It is tempting to repeat that old mantra "he still doesn't get it". But we suspect he does. Nevertheless, we feel it is premature for banks to start getting on the front foot again. They still have a lot to answer.

The bank's governance problems were not simply a case of one rogue banker, but activities that involved whole departments. Indeed, in the heady days of the US subprime mortgage boom, a lot of people were involved - a whole section of the bank was "rogue". Yet when asked senior bankers at HSBC some years ago how all that could have happened, there was a shaking of heads around the table, and we were told "they were a law unto themselves and we never knew what was going on".

You would have thought large corporations have by now figured out the management systems and the kind of people they need to have in place so that people at the top can have confidence in the various sections of the bank. You can't help feeling that when non-compliant behaviour among employees is widespread, someone senior must be aware.

Referring to the practice of helping clients evade tax at its Swiss business, Flint said on Monday the affair was "totally humbling" and conceded "yet again it is a sign that we did not fully understand" what was going on inside the bank. Yet, to the outside observer, Swiss banking and tax evasion go together like rabbits and the lettuce patch.