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I went to an interesting conference this week . The numbers were down on the organiser’s expectations, and the audience spent more time using their Blackberries to read the news headlines than listening to the presentations, but there were some interesting aspects that cropped up. For example, the fact that the organiser had given everyone…

Rory Bremner’s sketch from earlier this year seems even more appropriate today:

As a starter for ten. Gordon: "Alastair, do you think you could find another 10 billion of those?"

As a starter for ten. Gordon: "Alastair, do you think you could find another 10 billion of those?"

I promise to stop doing this soon but after seeing the inspiration of Monty Python earlier this week, and how it energised our community, I thought I would try one more before moving on.  Today, it’s a bed-time story for all of you bankers and technologists out there who are finding it hard to get…

I promise to stop doing this soon but after seeing the inspiration of Monty Python earlier this week, and how it energised our community, I thought I would try one more before moving on.  Today, it’s a bed-time story for all of you bankers and technologists out there who are finding it hard to get…

I dedicate today’s blog to all those people who remember Monty Python’s Parrot sketch with affection. The scene begins with a customer entering a bank. Customer: “I wish to make a complaint.” Teller: “We’re closing for lunch.” Customer: “Never mind that, I wish to complain about this account what I opened not half an hour…

Having seen markets rupture over the past few weeks, it’s no wonder that Chi-X is seeing more business coming through, but a quarter of FTSE 100 trading seems pretty steep.  That’s what Chi-X claim as peak on 20th August 2008, 22.36% market share and 28.28% of market ratio of the FTSE 100.  Pretty impressive. One…

Having seen markets rupture over the past few weeks, it’s no wonder that Chi-X is seeing more business coming through, but a quarter of FTSE 100 trading seems pretty steep.  That’s what Chi-X claim as peak on 20th August 2008, 22.36% market share and 28.28% of market ratio of the FTSE 100.  Pretty impressive. One…

There are lots of jokes about banking going around this week, but the one that made me laugh out loud was this cartoon in the Sunday Times by Nick Newman: