Disgraced collapsed State Bank boss Tim Marcus Clark has died just days after former premier John Bannon
TIM Marcus Clark, the man largely responsible for bringing South Australia to the brink of bankruptcy, has died — within days of the passing of former premier John Bannon.
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- Inside the State Bank collapse of 1991 that crippled South Australia
- Chris Kenny: Bannon was a good bloke who took his eye off the play
- Former South Australian premier John Bannon dies
TIM Marcus Clark, the man largely responsible for bringing South Australia to the brink of bankruptcy, has died — within days of the passing of former premier John Bannon.
In a double tragedy for the disgraced former State Bank chief’s family, Mr Marcus Clark’s only son Dominic died several days after his father.
The Sunday Mail understands Mr Marcus Clark, 83, who presided over the collapse of the publicly guaranteed State Bank, which saddled taxpayers with a $3.1 billion debt and forced Mr Bannon’s resignation, died after a long illness in Sydney.
He and his wife Micaele owned two adjoining penthouse apartments, valued collectively at up to $2 million, in a complex in the northern beaches suburb of Mona Vale where it is understood Dominic was living before his death.
Mr Marcus Clark’s eldest child, Samanda Bonomo, 48, posted news of her father’s and brother’s deaths on Facebook. “Losing a father and brother in a week is f****** awful,” she wrote.
Dominic died on December 18 in the same week as his dad and five days after Mr Bannon, who was afforded a State Funeral. Dominic, the youngest of three children which included sister Melanie, 43, was a father to at least two children.
A video tribute to Dominic was posted on website Vimeo, however the Sunday Mail could not find any death or funeral notices recording his death or that of his father.
Mr Marcus Clark’s intensely private family declined to comment on the deaths when contacted and approached by the Sunday Mail.
The Bannon Government appointed Mr Marcus Clark — a retailer with banking experience — in 1984 as managing director of the newly created State Bank.
He orchestrated a rapid and largely unaccountable expansion of the institution throughout Australia and overseas.
Under his bullish leadership the Harvard educated Dubbo-born executive — who survived an attempt on his life when seriously stabbed by an intruder outside his luxury Melbourne home in 1980 — opened branches in London, New York and Hong Kong.
He transformed the institution from home lender to financier of risky commercial ventures which would ultimately cause the bank’s downfall.
In February 1991, Mr Marcus Clark resigned from his $500,000-a-year post as Mr Bannon revealed the bank’s bad debt, amassed largely through non-performing commercial loans, would cost the Government and taxpayers $100 million a year to service.
In September 1992, Mr Bannon, who bet the bank to fund SA’s future, quit.
University of Adelaide Professor of Political Science, Greg McCarthy, who spent 10 years analysing the State Bank disaster and published a 2002 book on its collapse, said Mr Marcus Clark as “the agent of change” was “decisively responsible” for the debt crises that engulfed the bank.
“In part, Clark’s failing can be explained in terms of him being a product of the ‘greed is good’ times, in part, it was his forceful personality,” he said.
“It is said there are two types of bankers the risk takers and the risk managers; the role of the CEO is to ensure these archetypes remain in balance.
“He was the only member of the SBSA board who was a banker and he used his knowledge and dynamic advocacy for the expansionist program that few felt willing or confident enough to challenge him until it was just far too late to save the bank.” Retired Supreme Court judge and Royal Commissioner Samuel Jacobs, QC, in November, 1992, said Mr Bannon, also the state treasurer, “failed to listen to the messages of doom” as the bank headed toward disaster and that he was “mesmerised” by Mr Marcus Clark.
Former Auditor-General Ken MacPherson, in analysing the wreckage left behind, described Mr Marcus Clark as the “bank’s growth hormone” who introduced a market culture to beat the opposition by “doing the deal and doing it quickly”.
In 1996, the self-declared bankrupt was ordered to pay a record $81 million in damages to the State Government for his role in the bank’s demise.
But he escaped with a $1.5 million settlement of which $1.35 million was paid by his American-born wife Micaele.
Former Liberal State Premier Dean Brown, who swept to victory in the 1993 State Election and enacted a sell, said the State Bank collapse served as a reminder to “reject glitter (and) promises that can’t be substantiated”.
“Governments come out with all sorts of wild promises and that occurred with the State Bank and clearly at the time SA just couldn’t afford the sort of development that was occurring and the State Bank was a major driver of that,” he said. In a statement, Premier Jay Weatherill said: “It is a sad time for both families and we offer our condolences out of respect for their loss”.
Dominic Clark spent time in Europe, and settled for a few years in Bulgaria in the early 2000s before returning to Australia.
The video tribute posted by a close friend last week reveal a man who loved fishing, travelling and his children.
Banal banker mesmerised government
By Nick Cater
INSOFAR as his unglamorous profession would allow, Tim Marcus Clark was a celebrity.
Admired by the Adelaide establishment and revered by the premier John Bannon, Clark was a banker who embodied the reckless spirit of the 1980s.
His ambition to expand SA’s modest State Bank into a financial powerhouse fell apart when commercial property prices tanked and the bank’s loan book turned bad.
When Sam Jacobs’ royal commission began hearing evidence in 1992, Clark sat impassively behind his legal team, occasionally passing a note or exchanging glances.
It was hard to reconcile the mild-mannered, bespectacled figure with the truculent financier who once seemed to have the answers to all the state’s problems. The more the commission delved into the inner workings of the bank, the larger the incongruity became.
Clark was never going to bare his soul, either to journalists or to the commissioner during his time in the witness box. In his report, Jacobs portrayed Clark as a delusional figure who promised the earth but appeared unaware of the risks of banking.
Bannon, said Jacobs, has been “mesmerised” by Clark, although it was hard to see how this charisma-challenged man could have such an effect.
When the commission concluded, Clark simply disappeared. Like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, only the grin remained or, in this case, the debt that would remain a dead weight on the state’s economy for years.
How did he manage to keep his whereabouts secret? It was easy, really. No-one felt inspired to look and SA was pleased to see the back of him.
With his reputation and career in tatters, Clark’s only option was to sink back into obscurity from which many might wish he had never emerged in the first place.
■ Nick Cater reported on the Royal Commission for The Advertiser. He is currently executive director of the Menzies Research Centre
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