Cuddling cows
OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its cows and instead charge visitors to cuddle them.
That number is 0.08%, the ratio of impaired asset expense to average gross loans and advances.
Bagrie says this is incredible considering the economy is supposed to have experienced the worst economic climate since the global financial crisis.
"What risk have banks been taking?" he asks.
The low impairment charges and lift in banks' profitability tells a fundamentally different story relative to the economy's performance.
"We are not going to get an appetite to take risk in this economy - which is desperately needed - if the banking sector is not on board taking risk."
