The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the recent problems within the banking industry by means of modern organization theory. The second section of the paper discusses the development of this theory through a successive challenge of the work of the classical authors. Three tendencies are particularly stressed: the limitations of individuals, the complexity of human interaction and the importance of the organizational context. A subsequent section applies this reasoning to the banking firm whereby different organizational explanations to the recent problems are discussed. This analysis points to an increased need in bank management to consider the human aspects and the special characteristics of the banking firm.