Sir Fred adopts an open-door policy

Published on Sunday 23 March 2008 21:27

BRITAIN'S bankers are increasingly coming to the conclusion that the Bank of England is an institution living in the past.

The old lady of Threadneedle Street did herself no favours last week with her bizarre cloak-and-dagger antics on the day of the "crisis meeting" between Governor Mervyn King and the "big five".

Chief executives of the banks, including Scotland's RBS and HBOS, were told not to go in the front door for fear of falling foul of the financial equivalent of the paparazzi. Instructions were given to the doyens of British banking on where to find side doors so that the Bank would attract as little attention as possible to what it said – straining credulity to breaking point – was merely a "routine" get-together.

Scotland's finest, however, see no need for such conspiratorial carry-on. Unlike Mervyn and Co they live in the real world. And to demonstrate the point, Sir Fred Goodwin, chief executive of the mighty RBS, strode nonchalantly in to the Bank through the main entrance.

GOOD DAY

Friends Reunited members

ITV has announced it is to scrap subscription fees for its Friends Reunited website as part of a relaunch to drum up new revenue streams and increase advertising sales.

ITV bought the website two years ago for 120 million.

BAD DAY

Bear Stearns employees

ANALYSTS believe Bear Stearns will lay off more than 8,000 staff worldwide after its acquisition by JP Morgan.

The troubled financial institution is expected to sack around half of its staff, including 600 jobs in the UK, following the takeover.

FACT OF THE DAY: 360

THE amount the average household is estimated to have spent this Easter weekend.

The figure is 14 per cent lower on last year's Easter period, blamed on the early date of the holiday and the cold weather.

A spokesman for business consultancy the Prospects Service, said: "Last year, Easter spend was exceptionally strong, so the comparison with a warm April Easter is, in some sense, unfair."