Mortgage Corporation lets civil servants pretend to be bankers

The increase in profits and ROE [return on equity] was mainly attributable to the favourable interest rate environment, excellent loan performance, prudent business development strategy and strong commitment to risk management.

Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation

2010 results press release, April 12

Our senior civil servants in finance and monetary affairs occasionally show signs of not being happy that their careers are entirely complete. They can pontificate sonorously on the state of the world economy and Hong Kong's initiatives to establish itself as a global financial centre, but are uniquely vulnerable when someone asks: 'Uh-huh, and when have you ever worked behind a teller's counter? How much money have you ever made on a forex desk?'

Because, of course, the answers to these questions are respectively 'never' and 'none'.

We are talking of people who went straight from the classroom to postings as government administrative officers and were then lucky enough to be assigned to the finance branch rather than to regulation of pig farming in the New Territories. It's either that or they stayed on in the classroom as academics, where they could continue to be ethereal about financial affairs.