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In:Manufacturing Dissent: Manipulation and counter-manipulation in times of crisis
Edited by Cornelia Ilie
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 339] 2024
► pp. 284–307

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Chapter 9
Lessons learned?

The role of conventional arguments in avoiding blame and rebuilding trust in banking after the financial crisis

 | University of Navarra
Published online: 17 January 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.339.09bre
Abstract
The 2008 financial crisis severely undermined public trust in banking systems, prompting calls for widespread reform. However, irregularities continued, leading to a further succession of scandals over the following years. We should therefore ask how banks justified the catastrophe and their failure to reform. This chapter examines two large UK-based banks: Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and HSBC. All the “letters to shareholders” published in their Annual Reports over 15 years are examined for commonplace arguments or “topoi” offered as justifications for their failure to comply with ethical standards. Five typical recurring arguments are analysed, with a particular focus on their use in subtle manipulations of public opinion to draw attention away from the scale and impact of corporate wrongdoing.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
  • 3.Sample and method
  • 4.Analysis
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
References (34)
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Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Gillings, Mathew
2025. A Corpus-Assisted Perspective on Corporate Wrongdoing: The Boeing 737 Max Crisis. International Journal of Business Communication DOI logo
Lu, Chunmei, Zedong Zhao & Chunyu Hu
2025. Building Corporate Identity Through Interactional Metadiscourse: A Corpus‐based Study of the US and Chinese CEO Letters. International Journal of Applied Linguistics DOI logo
Ilie, Cornelia
2024. Crisis manipulation. In Manufacturing Dissent [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 339], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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