History Main / MorallyBankruptBanker

* On ''Radio/TheCoodabeenChampions'', this was invoked by regular mail correspondent Barry from the Bush, who hated banks so much that he spelled the suburb of Southbank in Creator/TheABC's mail address as "Southb***".

** And then we have Hugo Damask-not only he was part of the Banking Clan and killed off the rest of his family to get his inheritance, he was the ''[[EvilOverlord Dark Lord of the Sith]]'' planning to [[GalacticConqueror take over the galaxy]]. And [[ArmiesAreEvil the creation and development of the Clone Army until the Republic found it was paid by him and, after his death, his estate]].

* Henry Gatewood in ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}''.

The Morally Bankrupt Banker is unsympathetic, both as a character and to other characters. He's generally in the business of making loans to people who can't easily pay them back, which allows him to make a killing on interest fees and late fees and eventually repossession of the debtor's property. Sometimes he's taking advantage of pre-existing circumstances, like when a group of people get hit with a natural disaster and suddenly find themselves in need of cash. In other cases he himself creates bad circumstances, gleefully handing out loans with ReadTheFinePrint details making them into [[LeonineContract Leonine Contracts]]. In either case, the Morally Bankrupt Banker aims to maximize his own profits and doesn't care if good people get hurt along the way.

He[[note]](this trope is pretty much AlwaysMale)[[/note]] may be depicted living in lavish luxury, to emphasize his greed and self-centeredness. Alternatively he may be a miser who has a vast fortune but refuses to spend it on anything, which emphasizes how pointless it is to seek money purely for its own sake. He is ''not'' depicted making sound investments to benefit the community; if he uses his money to build anything it will be something objectionable like a casino or a highly-polluting factory. [[note]](Sometimes he'll aim to build something more generic, like an office building, but in that case it will be clear that the office is meant to be the headquarters of a corrupt corporation and building it requires the destruction of granny's cottage or a forest preserve or something else with personal value to decent people.)[[/note]] In these cases, he likely has a model of this awful building in his office somewhere.

Sometimes the Morally Bankrupt Banker is an ObstructiveBureaucrat, LawfulNeutral and a RulesLawyer. In other cases he's gleefully corrupt and thinks nothing of breaking the law whenever he can get away with it. Often overlaps with CorruptCorporateExecutive and sometimes involves being AffablyEvil.

This may be a CyclicalTrope; examples became popular during and after TheGreatDepression in the 1930s, and more recently in the global recession of 2008.

* In the [[ComicBook/ChickTracts Chick Tract]] [[http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0078/0078_01.asp "The Contract,"]] Elmer Boggs is one, coldly telling John Freeman (no, not [[Fanfic/HalfLifeFullLifeConsequences that]] one) that the bank will repossess his farm. He orders Freeman to get out of the bank and never show his face there again, but Freeman makes a DealWithTheDevil and becomes rich. [[TheDogBitesBack To get back at Boogs]] he tells the head of the bank that since Boggs told him he could never show his face at the bank again that he can't deposit his money, thus Boggs gets fired.

* ''Film/TheBank'': Pretty much every senior executive at Centabank, but especially Simon O'Rielly; the self-proclaimed 'swinging dick'. The board members are not satisfied with O’Reilly’s results as managing director. In the last year, he has closed 1,100 bank branches and sacked one-third of the bank’s employees but the board still wants more growth in profit.
* ''Film/TheBigShort'' revolves around the corrupt financial system that cratered the economy in 2008. The protagonists meet banker after banker who openly brag about their shady dealings to strangers, some of whom [[MoralMyopia don't even seem to realize that what they're doing is wrong]].
* ''Film/TheBrainiacsDotCom'': The main villain is a banker that wanted to liquidate a toy company. He then allowed its owner to borrow money and, to encourage him further, he had someone pretending to be interested on buying toys from his victim to encourage further loans. Then again, his victim made it easier by holding the IdiotBall.

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': The Mob Bank at the beginning may be earnest in how they handle their customers money but since their customers are the mob their business is immediately both illegal and morally deplorable.

* In ''Film/MaryPoppins'', the owners of the bank Mr. Banks works at, who are willing to basically force a child to part with a shilling to "invest it" against his will. However, by the end they seriously lighten up after Mr. Dawes Sr. [[DieLaughing died laughing at the "wooden leg named Smith" joke]]; his grandson William Weatherall Wilkins [[spoiler:plays this straight]] in [[Film/MaryPoppinsReturns the sequel]].

* Mr. Pease in ''Literature/DoloresClaiborne''. When Dolores' husband Joe steals the money she was saving for their daughter's education, she pleads with Pease to tell her if Joe's withdrawn it all or took it to another account. He didn't have to tell her, and she thought he wouldn't, but guilt over not having called to let her know led him to tell her he had opened a new account in his own name. Against bank confidentiality rules, no less.

* Robert Putney Drake from the ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy leads a double life as a respectable banker and the supreme ruler of the International Crime Syndicate. He claims to own the United States in far more real sense than any President has. [[spoiler:He's actually presented as slightly sympathetic figure despite of all the atrocities he's committed, and he ends up helping the good guys after some persuasion.]]

* In ''[[ShortStory The Premature Burial]]'' by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, a young French woman named Victorine LaFourcade is seeing a poor journalist by the name of Julien Bossuet, but [[ParentalMarriageVeto her rich family was not having it]]. She eventually caved to pressure from them and broke up with Julien, and went on to marry a respected and wealthy banker. But the banker [[DomesticAbuse mistreated and abused her]] until she fell ill and (apparently) died. Julien went to her grave [[ValuesDissonance to take a lock of her hair to remember her by]], and found that she had been BuriedAlive! Fortunately for Victorine, Julien had some medical training, and he took her home and nursed her back to health. They eloped to America together and returned to France some 20 years later. The banker recognized Victorine and attempted to legally claim her back, but she refused to go with him, and the case went to court. The court ruled that because of the time that had passed, and the unusual circumstances, her marriage to the banker was dissolved, and she lived HappilyEverAfter with Julien.
* Played with in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' when it comes to the [[NGOSuperpower Iron Bank of Braavos]] -- they're not generally given to [[LoanShark predatory lending]], but they ''will'' hurt any debtor that tries to default on them, whether by their usual method of [[PlayingBothSides backing other claimants]] to the [[KingMakerScenario debtors' (suddenly shaky) tile or throne]] who [[EvilDebtCollector promise to take over their predecessors' debt]]... or by [[DisproportionateRetribution calling in, say, every single outstanding Westerosi loan at the same time.]] For some reason. [[spoiler:A certain Queen Regent not only repeatedly defaulted on the crown debt, but directly insulted them quite graphically while doing it, too. Oops: instant casus belli.]]

* J.P. Gross, Scooter's uncle who owns the theater on ''Series/TheMuppetShow''. Usually an offscreen antagonist who Kermit hates dealing with but slavishly tries to please, his few onscreen appearances confirm it. In one episode he wanted to tear the theater down to build a junkyard, claiming "there's more money in real junk than this junk you got here." He changes his mind about tearing the place down later, claiming it will likely fall down by itself soon enough. Oftentimes, the plot of the show has revolved around the demands he has made of Kermit (like having women's wrestling on the show, or having Music/EltonJohn perform "Benny and the Jets") or a ZanyScheme to make money (like having a robot replace Kermit or selling the oil rights to the theater to the Middle East.)

* ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'': Ebenezer Scrooge is arguably the TropeCodifier and very much TruthInTelevision for Victorian England. However, it does require some clarification: the book makes it clear that professionally, you [[HonestCorporateExecutive can definitely trust him with your money]], but he has horrible attitudes about the underprivileged through CharacterDevelopment pulls him out of it by the end of the book.

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': The Mob Bank at the beginning.

Another route is to make him the financier for another villain, loaning out money to build DeathRays and DoomsdayDevices despite knowing full well that they'll be used for evil purposes. In this case he may be the manager of a SwissBankAccount.

The Morally Bankrupt Banker is unsympathetic, both as a character and to other characters. He's generally in the business of making loans to people who can't easily pay them back, which allows him to make a killing on interest fees and late fees and eventually repossession of the debtor's property. Sometimes he's taking advantage of pre-existing circumstances, like when a group of people get hit with a natural disaster and suddenly find themselves in need of cash. In other cases he himself creates bad circumstances, gleefully handing out loans with ReadTheFinePrint details making them into LeonineContracts. In either case, the Morally Bankrupt Banker aims to maximize his own profits and doesn't care if good people get hurt along the way.

The Morally Bankrupt Banker is unsympathetic, both as a character and to other characters. He's[[note]](this trope is pretty much AlwaysMale)[[/note]] generally in the business of making loans to people who can't easily pay them back, which allows him to make a killing on interest fees and late fees and eventually repossession of the debtor's property. Sometimes he's taking advantage of pre-existing circumstances, like when a group of people get hit with a natural disaster and suddenly find themselves in need of cash. In other cases he himself creates bad circumstances, gleefully handing out loans with ReadTheFinePrint details making them into LeonineContracts. In either case, the Morally Bankrupt Banker aims to maximize his own profits and doesn't care if good people get hurt along the way.

He may be depicted living in lavish luxury, to emphasize his greed and self-centeredness. Alternatively he may be a miser who has a vast fortune but refuses to spend it on anything, which emphasizes how pointless it is to seek money purely for its own sake. He is ''not'' depicted making sound investments to benefit the community; if he uses his money to build anything it will be something objectionable like a casino or a highly-polluting factory. [[note]](Sometimes he'll aim to build something more generic, like an office building, but in that case it will be clear that the office is meant to be the headquarters of a corrupt corporation and building it requires the destruction of granny's cottage or a forest preserve or something else with personal value to decent people.)[[/note]] In these cases, he likely has a model of this awful building in his office somewhere.

The Morally Bankrupt Banker is unsympathetic, both as a character and to other characters. However, on the one hand, he[[note]](this trope is pretty much AlwaysMale)[[/note]] ''does'' have a tough job; when someone needs that third loan extension and he says "No", it's not out of malice but to protect the savings of other bank patrons to avoid spending good money after bad. When deciding to issue a loan, he has to carefully consider whether the debtor has a decent chance of paying it back, because a bad loan hurts the debtor, the bank, and its customers. On the other hand, it's more likely he has a small shrine to [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Ebenezer Scrooge]] and says "No" because the debtor is [[InsaneTrollLogic at fault for being poor in the first place]] and he wouldn't know how to use the money anyway. When it comes time to make loans, he'll give them out gleefully with ReadTheFinePrint details making it a LeonineContract that turn up the interest rates like a thermostat until it's time for the repo man to impound some unfortunate ambitious dreamer's property.

And this is just a branch manager -- the bank's CEO is probably a CorruptCorporateExecutive who would rather embezzle and gamble with the customers' money than make prudent investments. More generally, the Morally Bankrupt Banker is likely an ObstructiveBureaucrat, LawfulNeutral or LawfulEvil, and a RulesLawyer. They may be a secrecy-obsessed SwissBankAccount manager, who turns a blind eye to where {{The Generalissimo}} got those attaché cases of gold bars.

A quick way to tell whether a banker is meant to be sympathetic is which of the following is his attitude toward money: "That's the bank's money" (unsympathetic), "That's my money" (''really'' unsympathetic) or "That's our customers' money" ([[FauxAffablyEvil run]]). Another is his reaction when he hears a plea for help. A snide remark about "all the sob stories" he hears is pretty much this trope's KickTheDog. On the other hand, if he goes out of his way to offer the customer an extension, move around deadlines, extend refinancing offers, or otherwise give the customer at least a chance at paying back a debt or getting a much-needed loan, then he's likely averting this trope and being sympathetic- or possibly [[BitchInSheepsClothing feigning niceness]] and being lenient just for the moment. Oh, and if he's also in the real estate biz, there's probably already a model in his office of whatever condo/nightclub/resort/casino he plans to build on your property once he inevitably forecloses on it.

This may possibly be a CyclicalTrope; examples became popular during and after TheGreatDepression in the 1930s, and more recently in the global recession of 2008.

* The Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells in the ''Series/{{Blackadder}} II'' episode "Money" is this in addition to being a SinisterMinister, representing the Bank of the Black Monks of St Herod - "service with a smile and a stab". His favoured response to debtors faulting on their loan involves a red-hot poker. So favoured, in fact, that he really hates it when people actually pay up.

[[folder:Comics]]

* In the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' season two premiere "Recap/LeverageS02E01TheBeantownBailoutJob", the team discovers that a bank with decades-long ties to the Boston mob is taking advantage of government bailout programs to let the mob take out millions of dollars in bad loans with no consequences. Nate is dumbfounded when he realizes the entire scheme is probably ''legal'', and the mastermind turns out to be not the mob boss but ''the manager of the bank'', who boasts proudly that he's stolen more money in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008 one act]] than the entire mob did in its entire history.

The Morally Bankrupt Banker is unsympathetic, both as a character and to other characters. However, on the one hand he[[note]](this trope is pretty much AlwaysMale)[[/note]] ''does'' have a tough job; when someone needs that third loan extension and he says "No", it's not out of malice but to protect the savings of other bank patrons to avoid spending good money after bad. When deciding to issue a loan, he has to carefully consider whether the debtor has a decent chance of paying it back, because a bad loan hurts the debtor, the bank and its customers. On the other hand, it's more likely he has a small shrine to [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Ebenezer Scrooge]] and says "No" because the debtor is [[InsaneTrollLogic at fault for being poor in the first place]] and he wouldn't know how to use the money anyway. When it comes time to make loans, he'll give them out gleefully with ReadTheFinePrint details making it a LeonineContract that turn up the interest rates like a thermostat until it's time for the repo man to impound some unfortunate ambitious dreamer's property.

* In ''Film/AmericanPsycho'', pretty much all of the main characters working as investment bankers fit the trope, although the banal greed and callousness of the secondary characters pales in comparison to the violent crimes of the [[VillainProtagonist protagonist]], [[SerialKiller Patrick Bateman]].
* ''Film/AssaultOnWallStreet'': Pretty much all of Jim's targets are portrayed as little more than white collar criminals. Particular mention goes to Jeremy Stancroft, a portfolio manager at a bank who openly defrauded his clients during the financial crash, and when confronted by Jim, unapologetically rants at him how cheating one's way to the top is necessary in his line of work.
* ''Film/TheBank'': Pretty much every senior executive at Centabank, but especially Simon O'Rielly; the self-proclaimed 'swinging dick'. The board members are not satisfied with O’Reilly’s results as managing director. In the last year he has closed 1,100 bank branches and sacked one third of the bank’s employees but the board still wants more growth in profit.

* ''Film/{{Circle}}'': The Rich Guy, [[UnreliableExpositor per his own description]], was actually a normal banker who just loaned money to businesses and entrepeneurs, not some crook. However, when he is forced to participate in the elimination, he turns into a DirtyCoward and for a while leads the effort to kill the Little Girl and Pregnant Lady.

%% * Downplayed in ''Film/TheHobbit'': Glóin isn't so much morally bankrupt as not willing to part with his money unless there's a very good reason. He initially did not want to contribute his share to paying Bard for supplies and safe passage, but then he saw the Lonely Mountain... %%isn't that just stingyness?

* In ''Film/InvitationToAGunfighter'', Sam Brewster is the town banker who used Weaver's to sway the town's occupants towards his own bigoted prejudices, racism and corrupt methods, all so that he can gain financial and peremptory control of the town.

* In ''Film/MaryPoppins'', the owners of the bank Mr. Banks work at, who are willing to basically force a child to part with a shilling to "invest it" against his will. However, by the end they seriously lighten up after Mr. Dawes Sr. [[DieLaughing died laughing at the "wooden leg named Smith" joke]]; his grandson William Weatherall Wilkins [[spoiler:plays this straight]] in [[Film/MaryPoppinsReturns the sequel]].

* German drama ''Film/{{Schwerkraft}}'', mostly it in form of a DeconstructiveParody. The lead character Frederik [[MeaningfulName Feinermann]] whitnesses a customer [[BoomHeadshot shooting himself in front of him]], causing him crossing his MoralEventHorizon and this way he becomes a full-fledged StrawNihilist MorallyBankruptBanker, who breaks into rich customers' houses.

* Hilariously inverted in ''Film/TheWrongGuy''. The banker is an honest, humble and hard-working man who has to contend with greedy farmers trying to turn land into farms.

* ''Literature/AlasBabylon'' has Edgar Quisenberry, who judges everyone by their wealth and has a personal grudge against the main character because of a social slight by his father. He's old, stodgy and conservative. When the shit hits the fan, he completely misjudges the situation and makes things worse. Then he goes home and [[DrivenToSuicide faces the future]] in a calm, rational fashion.
* ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'': Ebenezer Scrooge is arguably the TropeCodifier, and very much TruthInTelevision for Victorian England. However, it does require some clarification: the book makes it clear that professionally, you [[HonestCorporateExecutive can definitely trust him with your money]], but he has horrible attitudes about the underprivileged though CharacterDevelopment pulls him out of it by the end of the book.

* In ''[[ShortStory The Premature Burial]]'' by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, a young French woman named Victorine LaFourcade is seeing a poor journalist by the name of Julien Bossuet, but [[ParentalMarriageVeto her rich family was not having it]]. She eventually caved to pressure from them and broke up with Julien, and went on to marry a respected and wealthy banker. But the banker [[DomesticAbuse mistreated and abused her]] until she fell ill and (apparently) died. Julien went to her grave [[ValuesDissonance to take a lock of her hair to remember her by]], and found that she had been BuriedAlive! Fortunately for Victorine, Julien had some medical training, and he took her home and nursed her back to health. They eloped to America together, and returned to France some 20 years later. The banker recognized Victorine, and attempted to legally claim her back, but she refused to go with him, and the case went to court. The court ruled that because of the time that had passed, and the unusual circumstances, her marriage to the banker was dissolved, and she lived HappilyEverAfter with Julien.

* The "Bansky" character (no not that Creator/{{Banksy}}) from ''Series/TenOClockLive'' is a parody of the way the public perceived bankers after the economy collapsed and the British government had to bailout banks after they themselves went bankrupt.

* ''Film/BatesMotel1987'' has Tom Fuller, who zig-zags this trope. At first he does try to give Alex West, the new owner of the titular motel, legitimate business advice, namely to either sell the land to a real estate developer, or tear down the motel and rebuild it into a health spa. Once it becomes clear firstly that Alex only inherited the motel on the condition that he keep it as a running motel, and secondly that Alex is more than a little naive, Fuller gives him a huge loan with an unreasonable repayment schedule so that he can foreclose on Alex and sell the land himself... [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat and then tries to scare Alex away]] by dressing up like the mother of the now-deceased Norman Bates.
* Mr. Drysdale, the manager of the bank in which ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' have their money stored. All he cares about is keeping their money in his bank. Undergoes a character arc over the course of the series; he goes from shallow (before meeting the Clampetts, he says he'll get along fine with them because "they're my kind of people -- they're loaded") to being charmed by the Clampetts' folksy ways in contrast to his snobbish wife, to devolving back into this trope by the end. In way it makes sense; by that point, he's reinvested all their money, which makes up the vast majority of his bank's holdings; them trying to pull out would create a one-man run on his bank and ruin him for life.

** In season 1, Wilson Fisk has Leland Owlsley of Silver & Brent handling all his various criminal assets. Owlsley not only manages finances for Fisk's syndicate, but he's also skimming from Fisk, and conspires with Madame Gao to attempt to poison Fisk's girlfriend when they think Vanessa has become too much of a distraction. Fisk finds out about his skimming and his role in Vanessa's poisoning, and throws him down an elevator shaft.
** In season 2, while in prison, Fisk uses as an inside advisor Stewart Finney, a mortgage analyst who stole money from his clients and got thrown in Rikers after he double crossed the brother of an influential justice department figure.

* ''Series/InspectorMorse''. In "Masonic Mysteries", someone is out to frame Morse, and adds a large amount of money to his bank account to make it look like he's corrupt. Morse indignantly asks the bank manager why he didn't find anything strange about this sudden windfall. The manager snobbishly replies, "Well you ''are'' a police officer. I was meaning to ask how you wanted to invest it."

* In ''Theatre/ADollsHouse'', Krogstad the money lender comes across as this during his initial appearances, but is eventually revealed to be a much more nuanced character under a great deal of stress under his jerkish exterior. [[spoiler:He also, in the end, proves himself to be a stronger man than Thorvald in that he's willing to understand and trust the love of his life Linde rather than just viewing her as his "doll".]]
* Shylock from ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice''. Although his character has a very wide variety of interpretations ranging from heartless villain to tragic anti-hero, not even the most sympathetic interpretations about him could deny that he made most of his money by usury and other very shady an exploitative businesses, and that he intends to murder one of his rivals who (while behaving like kind of a dick) didn't pose a mortal danger to him.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': Invoked and then subverted in one episode when Pam talks about the time the bank tried to foreclose her fathers farm, and then cocks a shotgun.
--> '''Archer''': ''You killed a banker?!''
--> '''Pam''': What? No, we got a loan modification, you think the bank wants to own a failing dairy farm with obsolete milkers?

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpooktacularNewAdventuresOfCasper'' had both an aversion and a straight example. Dr. Harvey takes out a loan with the local bank to pay for Kat's music lessons; the banker here is warm and friendly, and readily gives the loan despite Dr. Harvey's checkered credit history because there's nothing sweeter than a child singing. However, as soon as Dr. Harvey leaves, the local bank is taken over by Pennypincher Banking, whose corrupt CEO immediately forecloses on Whipstaff Manor. [[spoiler:He had his commeupance when the bank's clients decided to withdraw their money from the bank]].

A subtrope of AcceptableProfessionalTargets. The Morally Bankrupt Banker is unsympathetic, both as a character and to other characters. However, on the one hand he[[note]](this trope is pretty much AlwaysMale)[[/note]] ''does'' have a tough job; when someone needs that third loan extension and he says "No", it's not out of malice but to protect the savings of other bank patrons to avoid spending good money after bad. When deciding to issue a loan, he has to carefully consider whether the debtor has a decent chance of paying it back, because a bad loan hurts the debtor, the bank and its customers. On the other hand, it's more likely he has a small shrine to [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Ebenezer Scrooge]] and says "No" because the debtor is [[InsaneTrollLogic at fault for being poor in the first place]] and he wouldn't know how to use the money anyway. When it comes time to make loans, he'll give them out gleefully with ReadTheFinePrint details making it a LeonineContract that turn up the interest rates like a thermostat until it's time for the repo man to impound some unfortunate ambitious dreamer's property.

'''Cale:''' [[AcceptableTargets You can keep them.]]

* On ''Radio/TheCoodabeenhampions'', this was invoked by regular mail correspondent Barry from the Bush, who hated banks so much that he spelled the suburb of Southbank in Creator/TheABC's mail address as "Southb***".

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'': Alluded to. Chick Hicks is sponsored by htB, Hostile Takeover Bank, which fits perfectly with his dirty driving methods.
* Mr. Perkins in ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe''. [[spoiler:Of course, the fact that he turns out to be the father of the primary villain, and therefore arguably the BigBad, cannot be underestimated.]] Tellingly, the Bank of Evil where he works was formerly [[TakeThat Lehman Brothers]] and he resembles the Pointy-Haired Boss from Dilbert.

And this is just a branch manager -- the bank's CEO is probably a CorruptCorporateExecutive who would rather embezzle and gamble with the customers' money than make prudent investments. More generally, the Morally Bankrupt Banker is likely an ObstructiveBureaucrat, LawfulNeutral or LawfulEvil, and a RulesLawyer. They may be a secrecy-obsessed SwissBankAccount manager, who turns a blind eye to where {{Generalissimo}} got those attaché cases of gold bars.

And this is just a branch manager -- the bank's CEO is probably a CorruptCorporateExecutive who would rather embezzle and gamble with the customers' money than make prudent investments. More generally, the Morally Bankrupt Banker is likely an ObstructiveBureaucrat, LawfulNeutral or LawfulEvil, and a RulesLawyer.