It’s Fine for a Bank to Want Money

The basic sin of investment banks is that they are both counterparties and advisers. The goal, of a banker or a salesperson at a bank, is to develop deep relationships with clients so that they treat you as a trusted adviser and come to you to solve their problems. The way you solve their problems is by selling them a thing. The more the thing costs—the more fees you can sneak into it, etc.—the happier you are and the sadder they are. They trust you to advise them on what is in their best interests, and then you advise them to do something that is in your best interests.

I do not want to exaggerate this. This is not “banks are irremediably evil.” This is just, like, commerce. The way you get paid, as a bank, is usually that your client pays you. The more they pay you the more money you have and the less money they have. This is not that different from most other businesses: A car salesman wants to solve your transportation problems by selling you a car, and it’s in his interest to add as many expensive optional features as possible to the car. But people, for both good and bad reasons, get madder about it when it’s a bank.