Down the banking hole

Authors

  • Peter Premrl Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia
  • Bojan Dobovšek University of Maribor, Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Boštjan Slak University of Maribor, Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, Ljubljana, Slovenia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v10i2.1262
Abstract Views: 117 PDF Downloads: 101

Keywords:

financial crime, banking sector, investigation, white-colar crime

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the paper was to analyze who was responsible for the deterioration of the Slovenian banking sector to the degree, that the 2008 financial crisis almost destroyed the sector and international bailout was on the horizon.

 

Design/methodology/approach

Literature review, where a specific focus was given to reports from law enforcement agencies and commissions investigating banking practices, were deepened with a qualitative empirical study. To gain insight into the reasons why this situation unfolded, ten structured interviews were done, and interviewees included experts with experience in the fields of prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of economic crime, bad credit management, central banking, parliamentary committee management, forensic investigations, investigative journalism, and experts with academic knowledge in law and economics.

 

Findings

Five different investigations looked into the behaviour of banking sector actors pre-, mid-, and after the 2008 financial crisis. They found that behaviours ranged from negligence to criminal acts. And the findings from the interviews show that the perpetrators were people of high social status with great social influence, which is why people are often not willing to testify against them. The main reason on the detection and prosecution side, however, was criminal investigators, prosecutors, judges, and others had fears of retaliation from their superiors, losing their jobs and raising their heads above the parapets and being publicly lambasted in the media.

 

Originality

This study is the only one that has so far provided an insight in the issues of deterioration of Slovenian banking sector from the criminological and criminal investigative standpoint.

Keywords: Financial crime, Banking sector, Investigation, White-collar crime

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Published

2024-10-16

How to Cite

[1]
Premrl, P., Dobovšek, B. and Slak, B. 2024. Down the banking hole. Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics. 10, 2 (Oct. 2024), 56–73. DOI:https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v10i2.1262.

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2024): Research Papers

Section

Articles

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