History Main / MorallyBankruptBanker

A subtrope of AcceptableTargets. 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.

* ''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. The he goes home and [[DrivenToSuicide faces the future]] in a calm, rational fashion.

* In ''Film/TheInternational'' the IBBC is this funding wars in the third world as a means of profiting of the debt. Taken to extremes in that they had assassins on the payroll. Sadly based on the real BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) that was shut down in 1991 by an international law enforcement effort.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': Natira from the "Liars, Guns and Money" trilogy runs one of the biggest [[SwissBankAccount Shadow Depositories]] in the galaxy, catering exclusively to criminals and other shady individuals. She has no problem stealing from her clients, leaving traps in their valuables if they displease her and gleefully tortures people caught trying to steal from her.

* German drama ''Film/{{Schwerkraft}}'' takes this trope UpToEleven and then deconstructs it, 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 [[UpToEleven full-fledged]] StrawNihilist MorallyBankruptBanker, who breaks into rich customers' houses.

** [[UpToEleven 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]].

See also the LoanShark and the EvilDebtCollector. Expect them to try to get back any money they lend through a RidiculousRepossession.

* The opening victims in ''Film/SawVI'' are a pair of bankers who loaned money to people who they knew couldn't pay it back, and proceeded to extract from them every pound of flesh they could with interest on their debt. [[PoeticSerialKiller Jigsaw]] punishes them by forcing them to give up their own [[LifeOrLimbDecision "pound of flesh"]]: whoever cuts off the most of their flesh (measured by the scale they put it on) gets to live, while the other dies from a pair of drills to the brain attached to the helmets they're wearing.

* ''Film/ColdTurkey'': Downplayed and PlayedForLaughs when the local doctor threatens to foreclose on the hospital unless the door joins the anti-smoking pledge. It's a dirty trick, but it is meant to get a $25,000,000 prize that the DyingTown desperately needs.

* 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...
-->'''Glóin:''' I have been bled DRY!

See also the LoanShark and the EvilDebtCollector.

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. 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 he plans to build on your property once he inevitably forecloses on it.

* The opening victims in ''Film/SawVI'' are a pair of bankers who loaned money to people who they knew couldn't pay it back, and who must give up their own [[LifeOrLimbDecision "pound of flesh"]] as [[PoeticSerialKiller Jigsaw]]'s punishment. Whoever cuts off the most of their flesh (measured by the scale they put it on) gets to live, while the other dies from a pair of drills to the brain attached to the helmets they're wearing.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': 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 3, Owlsley's old duty has been taken over by Red Lion National Bank, who basically are little more than a front for Fisk to launder money through. They trick Foggy's family into committing fraud so Fisk has something to blackmail Foggy with. And the main representative from the bank, [[EvilBrit Felix Manning]], strongarms people for Fisk and functions as a handler for Dex.

[[caption-width-right:350:Low interest community loans? I have no money for such [[YouFool foolishness!]]]]

* The banker in ''Film/WildBoys'' is a pompous jerkass despised by everyone, including his wife.

* On ''The Coodabeen Champions'', 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***".

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', Junya Kaneshiro is [[{{Yakuza}} a mob boss]] who extorts high school students (usually by having them unwittingly smuggle drugs, then blackmailing their families about it), so his Shadow in the MentalWorld appears as one of these, who views the citizens of Shibuya as literally walking [=ATMs=].
* A rare female version in VideoGame/Hitman2 comes in the form of Athena Savalas, the sole target in "The Golden Handshake" DLC mission.

* 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]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hurricanes}}''' BigBad owns, among other things, a finance company. Not much is known about how he manages that venture since it was just briefly mentioned and the episode's plot was about a project developed by the laboratories the finance company foreclosed in that episode.

* 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.

* In ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', this trope is played straight (Mr. Potter, a CorruptCorporateExecutive running a big bank [[note]]By the standards of the day, it was big. Probably today it would have been bought out five times by consecutively bigger banks to become part of JP Morgan Chase or something.[[/note]]) and averted (George Bailey, who runs a small, honest savings & loan business trying to help people achieve UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream).

* ''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.
* 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.
* In ''Film/TheInternational'' the IBBC is this funding wars in the third world as a means of profiting of the debt. Taken to extremes in that they had assassins on the payroll. Sadly based on the real BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) that was shut down in 1991 by an international law enforcement effort.
* German drama ''Film/{{Schwerkraft}}'' takes this trope UpToEleven and then deconstructs it, 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 [[UpToEleven full-fledged]] StrawNihilist MorallyBankruptBanker, who breaks into rich customers' houses.
* Henry Gatewood in ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}''.
* One of the villains in ''Film/TheGodfatherPartIII'' is a Swiss banker who bilks Michael Corleone, his rivals ''and'' the Vatican Bank out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Naturally, his prognosis isn't good.
* Miss Bitterman, of Bitterman Bank and Development, from ''Film/ItsAVeryMerryMuppetChristmasMovie''. She plans to tear down the Muppet Theater and build a nightclub on the property, pays them a personal visit just to taunt them about it, and actively tries to prevent Fozzie from delivering the money they owe her when the show sells out. This being ItsAWonderfulPlot, she was of course inspired by Mr. Potter himself.
* ''Film/NothingButTrouble'': The JP fully believes that anyone involved in finance is morally bankrupt, ever since his grandfather made a bad deal with a genuinely corrupt one while he was off fighting in World War 1. And since he's a HangingJudge, that means [[DisproportionateRetribution death to any "banker" he can get his hands on]].
* ''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.
* In ''Film/WildHorsePhantom'', Clipp Walters, the banker of Piedmont, is using the bank robbery as an excuse to foreclose on all of the local ranches.
* ''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.
* In ''Film/KillBenLyk'', one of the men named Ben Lyk is a mean, smug banker who is hinted to be a psychopath.
* ''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.

* In ''Literature/MakingMoney'', the Lavish family which dominates the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork fits, with the exception of Topsy, who was born into the [[PunnyName Turvy]] family and is only a Lavish by marriage.

* Danglars from ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''. Not only does he make stupid investments with his client's money, but when it catches up to him he runs for it with what's left of it. And of course, he wrote the letter that got Dantes imprisoned in the first place. [[spoiler:Monte Cristo has him captured by his bandit allies and forced to buy his food with the money he stole. After spending five million francs on grand feasts, he starts eating everything in the cell including his bedding and slowly starves. Monte Cristo lets him out with the last half-million francs, as he'd gained them honestly.]]
* [[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.
* 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.
* Inverted in ''Literature/TheDaggerAndTheCoin'' with Cithrin bel Sarcour. She certainly makes some morally questionable decisions, but she is the heroine of the series and the leader of [[LaResistance the resistance]] to [[TheEmpire Geder Palliako's wars of conquest]]. She and one of her fellow bankers use the resources of the bank to help Timzinae refugees escape from occupied Suddapal.
* 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.]]
* ''Literature/NickVelvet'': Nick is employed by one in "The Theft of the Banker's Ashtray". Nick exposes him for defrauding his clients after he attempts to stiff Nick on his fee.
* An arguably sympathetic example of this Trope is the protagonist of the Spanish short story ''"Para Justicias, El Tiempo"'' ("For Justices, Time" or "Time Will Give Judgement"): the protagonist, when he was very little, sacrificed all of his money to pay for a circus ticket and was swindled out of his seat by a man (the man convinced the boy that his mother was dying and he had to go see her ''now'', and he arrived to his house to find out otherwise, and when he came back to complain the fact he was JustAKid means that the circus security bought the man's word over his). The TitleDrop occurs because [[BestServedCold when the boy grew up]] he became a banker, with an order to foreclose on a farm... which happened to be owned by the man. When the man comes to beg for a little more time to pay, the banker [[NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe points out his misdeed on the circus (and that he was the kid in question)]] and ''[[DisproportionateRetribution denies him the extension because of this]]''.
* 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.

* 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.
** Likewise his rival John Cushing. All he cared about was getting the Clampetts to move their money from Drysdale's bank to his.

* Mr. Mooney, [[Creator/LucilleBall Lucy's]] boss on ''Series/TheLucyShow'', was sometimes portrayed this way, though the fact that he continued to employ Lucy, despite her incompetence, suggests that he did have at least some compassion.
* 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.
* One unnamed bank president on ''Series/SledgeHammer'' was nasty enough to foreclose on a nun's convent, and was pretty rude to customers. (And he wasn't even the antagonist of the episode, meaning Hammer had to ''defend'' this guy.)
* ''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."
* 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.)
* 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.
-->'''Leary:''' What do you think these guys clear in a year? Stealing cigarettes, selling drugs, a couple hundred thousand, all in? And for that, the government hunts them down like dogs. People like me, we took billions from the banks. Billions. And what did the government do when they finally caught us? They wrote us a giant check and begged us to make it all better.

* ''Series/BarbaryCoast'': In "Funny Money", banker Emory Van Cleve purchases $100,000 in CounterfeitCash, which he plans to distribute through his bank while he pockets the equivalent amount of real cash.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hurricanes}}'' BigBad owns, among other things, a finance company. Not much is known about how he manages that venture since it was just briefly mentioned and the episode's plot was about a project developed by the laboratories the finance company foreclosed in that episode.
* ''{{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.

->''"When you need to borrow money [[TheMafia the Mob]] seems like a better deal, I think. 'You don't pay me back I break both yer legs.' Is that all? You won't take my house or wreck my credit rating? Fine, where do I sign?"''