Banking 2.0 – Could a technical author prevent a future banking crisis?

In the United Kingdom, the banking sector has been changed fundamentally today, with HM Government taking shareholdings in two major banks. This change has already been called “Banking 2.0”, and it’s clear that the government support and part-ownership ushers in a new approach to finance and risk.

In order to prevent future banking crises, there clearly needs to be greater disclosure and transparency. However, there also needs to be the adoption by banks of appropriate monetary, fiscal and regulatory policies.

According to Gerard Lyons, a member of the International Council of the Bretton Woods Committee, a steering group for the IMF and World Bank:

“The point we’re at now is like the scene in Apollo 13 when one of the mission controllers says they’re facing the worst disaster in Nasa’s history, and his boss points out that it will turn out to be Nasa’s finest hour if they get it right.”

In Apollo 13, once the engineers on the ground figured out emergency repair procedures, the procedures had to be documented before being sent to the crew in the spacecraft. This – documenting and communicating the procedures for working in a way that isn’t excessively risky – will need to be done even more carefully in banking.

So who is good doing such a task? The humble technical author.

Could a technical author prevent a future banking crisis? Not by themselves, but they could play an important role in a team that could stop this crisis from happening again.