Those who complain that the banks have got away with it again are failing to distinguish between banks and bankers (Treasury signs a truce with the banks – and back come bonuses, 10 February). Banks are easy targets for bashing by such things as new taxes, bonus bans and stiff regulation, including having to do unprofitable business. But this brings no satisfaction because, being mere legal entities, they do not feel pain: we do, as we own them and we pay for their services which we unavoidably use. Bankers, on the other hand, are flesh and blood, and some of them may well deserve to be bashed. But they are elusive, having on the whole broken no law and having talents which are much in demand, not least by our own banks. In order to punish them the complainers need to tell the government how to pin them down.
Tony Ridge
York
• The bankers have finally decided to show that they are listening and have announced that they will be lending £190bn to customers this year. Of course, this is a target or a pledge with no mechanism to enforce delivery. By choosing to name the agreement "Project Merlin", they signal that this will probably be a magician's trick – a case of now you see it, now you don't.
Huren Marsh
London
• "Project Merlin"! Are they taking the piss? Readers of the Le Carré novels (Tinker, Tailor…) will recall Merlin was the code name for an arrangement that turned out to be a colossal scam.
Will McLewin
Stockport
• Simple: if bankers' total rewards are publicised, start a mass campaign (way beyond the Guardian) to withdraw savings and investments from the top-paying banks. A self-fulfilling run on over-paying banks: a run to good ones (or remaining mutuals).
Alan Woodburn
Truro, Cornwall
• When will the government require those banks that are part state-owned to make the kind of "back-office savings" being demanded of the police, the NHS and local councils?
W Stephen Gilbert
Corsham, Wiltshire
• Interesting that the government's ire has been focused on the annual £200,000 salary of the chief executive of Manchester when it would take him 40 years to earn the reported £8m that Bob Diamond will receive as a bonus in one year.
Kevin Comrie
Flixton, Manchester
• The phrase "As safe as a banker's bonus" springs to mind!
Gordon Watson
Melbourn, Hertfordshire