There have been many occasions over the past 10 years when the British public could have done with the memory powers of Norris McWhirter, who once could effortlessly recall seemingly any feat in what used to be called the Guinness Book of Records.
So without the great man to provide a definitive answer, we can merely pose a question: will there have ever been a greater collection of individuals censored by a wider selection of watchdogs than those gathering for the annual conference of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) this week?
Obviously there are the bankers, whose endeavours in this field have been heroic. To the varied blows they have taken from financial regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority, another was added last week when an unnamed colleague became the first to plead guilty to rigging Libor – a crime that neatly took place when the benchmark interest rate was being overseen by the, er, BBA.
Anyway, delegates are also being promised a video of a speech from David Cameron, whose scoldings at the hands of the Office for National Statistics are legion, while proceedings will be compered by the broadcast journalist Daisy McAndrew, once rebuked by Ofcom for inaccurate reporting of an interview with Tony Blair. What a well-matched (and potentially record-breaking) crowd.
Bonuses shrink on Wall Street
And now for some cheery news from the banking sector. Bond traders at JP Morgan and Citigroup look likely to share the fastest-shrinking bonus pools on Wall Street, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg before the start of the big six US banks’ reporting season this week.
Still, if that seems like someone has started to see sense on bonuses, think again. They will be lower only because some divisions of the banks are doing less well. The financial data provider predicts that JP Morgan’s fixed-income trading revenue fell by 14% to $10.6bn during the first nine months of 2014. Similarly, Citigroup’s revenues in this field are thought to be down by $9.72bn.
Anyway, looking at it the other way around, there is some good news for Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where the city’s tailors will be hoping to shift an extra few pinstripe suits and flash suspender sets. There may be some extra business for them because, overall, the banks are expected to report $15.9bn in combined third-quarter profit, which is a 19% increase on last year. Investment bankers at Morgan Stanley look set to share the largest bonus pot. Isn’t life just grand?
WH Smith breaks the mould
The rule of thumb in retail is that when a longstanding and widely lauded chief executive stands down, you sell the shares. If you followed that routine after the abdications of Sir Terry Leahy at Tesco and Justin King at Sainsbury’s, you’re probably reading this as a butler pours your morning cocktail – such has been the cash to be made from shorting their former companies’ shares.
Like Leahy and King, Kate Swann had a lengthy acclaimed spell running a shop, so when she left WH Smith in July last year plenty of the rule’s disciples (including this page) feared for her successor, Stephen Clarke.
But in what may yet prove to be the only case in recent history of a top retailer resisting the temptation to stitch up their replacement, WH Smith shares are 35% dearer than they were when Swann left.
The company reports full-year results this week and while there is a still a nagging suspicion that the stock may run out of puff, it is tricky to find many predicting a crash just yet. Which leaves Swann, who went on to take charge of railway station and airport restaurant group SSP, as a possible retail pioneer after putting in a decent shift and then resisting the temptation of the hospital pass.
It will never catch on.
