Good blog I think except the final paragraph. Remember that only five years after the Iron Curtain fell the European Community was changed into the EU. There followed a spate of deregulations, and of course the introduction of the euro. Neither the bankers, nor the regulators were able to keep up with the fast changes. The temptations were there, ripe for the pickings, and, yes, many banks fell for the chance to make easy profits.
However, the solution is not to increase the power of transnational regulatory agencies, with unelected offcials reponsible to no one except themselves. But unfortunately that may be just the effect of a possible new banking crisis in Europe - more power being given away from national authorities and political assemblies to EU.