Paul Moore warned his employers at the banking giant HBOS that he believed lending had got out of control. He claims he lost his job as a result. In going public with his story, he tells Elena Curti, he found the inspiration to be a whistleblower through his Catholic faith

It comes as no surprise that Paul Moore trained as a barrister. One can easily imagine him in wig and gown querying the most minute details of a witness's account during his cross-examination. He took the same forensic approach in his post in charge of risk at the financial services giant, HBOS, at the height of the credit boom: scrutinising documents, conducting structured interviews and observing meetings with an eagle eye. He may have done his job too well; when he discovered the bank was lending on a reckless scale he urged his masters to row back. Instead he was "summarily dismissed" in 2005.

Then there he was last February, before the Treasury Select Committee, setting out meticulous details of the bank's cata­strophic lending. Overnight Moore became the "HBOS whistleblower" and for several days was in the eye of a media storm. Yet he says he felt perfectly calm, describing it as "a tremendous moment of grace". He was, he explains, impelled by his Catholic faith to set out what he had learned about the scale of the risks taken by HBOS and why much of the British banking industry imploded in spectacular fashion last autumn. (continues)