More than 30 former bankers, ministers, central bankers and regulators have written about their experiences in previous financial crises. The results have been collated by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, a London think tank, in a book entitled Grumpy Old Bankers: Wisdom from Crises Past. The CSFI has allowed this website to run edited versions of five selected people, all of whom who were extremely influential not very long ago, lived through turbulent times of their own and who believe that their experience gives them something to offer to policymakers and supervisors in the present situation.

Sir Jeremy Morse was chairman of Lloyds Bank from 1977 to 1993, and chancellor of the University of Bristol from 1989 to 2003. He was extremely active in international efforts to handle both petrodollar recycling and the Latin American debt crisis. He urged the London Summit find a way between ‘the horns of the dilemma’ of neither shrinking the commercial banking system nor reconstructing it on an unstable basis.

Shijuro Ogata is a former deputy governor for international relations at the Bank of Japan. From 1986 to 1991, he was deputy governor of the Japan Development Bank. He urged short-term action to reverse the decline in the global economy while focusing on the long-term need for Americans to reduce their excess spending gradually - and for East Asian economies to pursue more domestic demand growth.

John S Reed spent 16 years as chairman of the bank now known as Citi, stepping down in 2000. He came back from retirement in 2003-05, as chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. He participated in almost all the crises that have hit the financial world – not least the Latin debt crisis. He warns the 2009 agenda is a ‘full one’ with demands for action on economic growth, toxic bank assets and regulatory reform.

Erik Hoffmeyer was chairman (i.e. Governor) of the Danmarks Nationalbank from 1965 to 1994 through the Latin debt crisis, right through to the rumblings of the Asian crisis. He recommends extending the deposit insurance system to cover all deposits and raising minimum capital requirements to 15 - 20 per cent.

Manfred Lahnstein was Federal Minister of Finance in Germany in 1982, having been Permanent Secretary in the Ministry for the previous two years. He says the eurozone must see the present crisis as an opportunity to move towards common rules and a common supervisor in the form the European Central Bank