Martha Kearney's week

By Martha Kearney Presenter, BBC Radio 4's World at One

Four of the UK's most powerful bankers apologised but some queried for what?

In the 18th Century there wasn't much tolerance for crooked bankers.

After the South Sea bubble a parliamentary inquiry suggested that the financiers involved be tied up in sacks with poisonous snakes and thrown into the Thames.

I am grateful to the Lib Dems' Vince Cable for that nugget.

He also told me that during the more recent Japanese depression, bankers had to appear on television and bow their heads in an act of contrition.

So perhaps the banking bosses who appeared before the Treasury select committee this week got off lightly.

Apologising for what?

They did apologise but after listening to the full session on Tuesday, I began to wonder what they were sorry for.

"They did give an apology but as the session went on, I think they were drawing back from that and saying, look, there were events beyond our control," John McFall, the committee chair, told me afterwards.

"If you ask my opinion, yes, they were advised to do that. Was there a hint of arrogance still there? Absolutely."

The former and current bosses of HBOS appeared before his committee this week. Friday's news that the troubled bank will face a far bigger losses than predicted in November - around