Survival of the fittest

From the rescue of HBOS by Lloyds TSB to the nationalisation of another British bank, not a week seems to pass without more evidence that the structure upon which the last decade of prosperity was built was over-optimistic and under-regulated. During the heady days of the cheap credit boom, fuelled by complex derivatives products and rampant securitisation, the belief arose that risk could effectively be eliminated. We are now witnessing the fall-out from this hubris, with the UK and the US at the coal-face. For the private equity industry, things are unlikely to ever look the same again