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On London trains, there is a poster campaign which features uniformed employees battered and bruised. Its purpose is to highlight the increasing levels of physical abuse dished out by frustrated commuters on its staff.

What’s the point of me mentioning this, you might ask? Well, in spite of the obvious physical and psychological damage it causes the staff member involved, you have to wonder what the perpetrators expect to achieve.

Will the trains run on time if you punch a station supervisor? Will spitting at a ticket inspector ensure that tariffs are kept at a reasonable rate? No, of course not.

So why do certain people in Ireland think that carrying out physical abuse on high street bank employees will have any affect on the dire situation currently engulfing the domestic institutions?

The Irish Bank Official Association says that banking staff have been facing increasing levels of abuse from customers. Employees have been threatened and spat at by incensed consumers looking to take their frustrations out on somebody.

“Many of our members are saying they are reluctant to go out in the evenings or indeed to identify themselves as bank workers,” says Larry Broderick, general secretary of the IBOA.

An Allied Irish Bank spokesperson says that “ordinary rank and file bank staff” are on the receiving end of customers’ frustrations.

The furore around the fraud investigation into Anglo Irish Bank has only added wood to the fire of anti-banking sentiment.

The strong words of justice minister Dermot Ahern will do nothing for banking's image in Ireland: “We operate the rule of law. That provides that whether you have a balaclava, a sawn-off shotgun or a white collar and designer suit, the same rules apply."

In the face of a grim economic outlook, rising unemployment, and fraud investigations, anger towards financial institutions is understandable. However, this physical abuse really takes the biscuit.

Irish banks largely managed to steer away from the toxic assets that have infected the rest of the world’s financial system, but ploughed cash into a property bubble, which has since burst. Plummeting share prices, poor risk management practices, and a souring economic climate have only added to their woes.

What does this have to do with cashier on the street? Absolutely nothing.

It’s like comparing the multi-million euro bonuses enjoyed by ‘fat cat’ chief executives, or risk-raking investment bankers, with the annual €2k sweetener (occasionally) handed out to high street staff.

Public outcry at the irresponsible lending practices of Ireland’s banks, which have resulted in billions of euros of taxpayers’ money being used to bail them out is acceptable. Abusing ordinary bank employees is not.