Just looking something up in Peter Spufford's Money and its Use in Medieval Europe. Came across the following passage, which seems to have relevance to the modern day:
In Barcelona, from 1300, book entries by credit transfer legally ranked equally with original deposits among the liabilities of bankers. Those who failed were forbidden ever to keep a bank again, and were to be detained on bread and water until all the account-holders were satisfied in full. In 1321 the legislation there was greatly increased in severity. Bankers who failed and did not settle up in full within a year were to be beheaded and their property sold for the satisfaction of their account-holders. This was actually enforced. Francesch Castello was beheaded in front of his bank in 1360.
Nowadays, we don't even sack them, we seek their voluntary agreement to leave the failed institution, and pay them hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to do so. I think they had it right in the 14th century, don't you?