Ray Perman gave a very good talk at the Edinburgh Central Library about the history of finance in Edinburgh, in particular its various "Heroes and Villains". He has a book out called The Rise and Fall of the City of Money. I had a browse through the book in a shop and started finding it quite absorbing: but managed to rein in the temptation to buy (for now, my queue needs shortening).

His talk was excellent. Speaking off the cuff for about forty minutes he covered the foundation of the Bank of England, the Company of Scotland and subsequent Darien disaster, to the City of Glasgow bank collapse and all the way up to HBOS and RBS in 2008. A sobering talk in the end but also one that was witty and interesting. It also highlighted how far our system and regulation failed before, and after, the upheavals eleven years ago.

Ray Perman as a website.
The BBC has an article covering the book