City Diaries latest

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As world leaders and politicians meet in Davos for the annual World Economic Forum, our City insiders give their updates.

Our City Diaries are written by people who work in finance and have had a front row seat as their industry goes through the biggest changes in decades.

They will be giving us regular insiders' updates on the mood in the City of London and the dramatic changes in the world of finance.

LAURA

Laura (not her real name) works for a commercial bank in London.

I heard about a teleconference at one of the part-nationalised banks last week in which the head of commercial lending was challenged about the complete loss of an employee's 30 years of investment through the staff share save scheme. His response was that maybe she had simply made the wrong choice in investing part of her salary every year in the bank's shares (encouraged by the bank and given a tax incentive). Would it have been so hard just to say "sorry, we are all disappointed and all in this together - believe me when I say we are doing everything we can to get things fixed"?

There is a growing sense of mutiny among the ranks. Some of the 'top brass' in banks still just don't seem to understand the level of balls-up they have made. As a staff member on the front line with customers you try and do the best you can for both the customer and your employer. You have faith in what you are told because you don't imagine that your bosses would lie to you - the importance of being a team player apparently only works one way.

Bank staff are feeling emotionally wounded by this current crisis - our faith in our industry and our employers has been undermined. Now is not the time to be looking for new employment but people will have long memories. Some will be biding their time wilfully wasting stationery and expenses until they can give a final "get stuffed" as they walk out of the door to a new beginning.

<a class="bodl" href="/1/hi/business/7843435.stm">Read Laura's previous diary entries</a>

TOM

Tom (not his real name) works in the investment industry.

Around 80,000 jobs lost worldwide in one day on Monday. It's the worst start to the week in terms of job losses since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, when 25,000 employees found themselves out of work over a weekend. The difference this week is that those made redundant are not bankers, but instead factory employees, shop assistants. This is the so-called "real economy".

Unfortunately, it does seem that things are getting much worse before they get better. And everyone in the office already talks about 2009 being a write-off. Gone are the long, expensive lunches and booze-ups after work. Everyone is frugal not only because of the economic crisis and the threat of job losses, particularly here in the City. No, there is more to it. It just seems, well, the right way to be. The most boisterous of people are now humble. I am not sure whether that's fear or just a realisation that some of us took our spending and egoism a bit too far in the good times. Either way, people have changed. And I suppose that in the absence of some personality-changing epiphany, fear for the future is the next best thing for some people.

One measure of just how negatively the UK is perceived in the eyes of the world is the pronouncement by the famous investor Jim Rogers that "the UK has nothing to sell". By this, he is (mostly) referring to the fact that the North Sea oil is running out and that our financial services industry is in the gutter (and don't we all know it)! He is a chap who, together with George Soros, bet against the pound in the 1990s, which forced us out of the ERM. I think that he may have a point. And, oh yes, they made billions, so I wouldn't discount their opinion. In any case - we are in the doldrums. I may be able to tell my grandchildren about this one day, however I'm not sure how long I will tell them the crisis lasted.

Let's just hope that this is as bad as it gets or that we are somewhere near the very bottom.

<a class="bodl" href="/1/hi/business/7748521.stm">Read Tom's previous diary entries</a>

MARK

Mark (not his real name) works for a stockbroker outside London.

I spend a lot of time watching nature programmes and it is amazing to see the natural world and the selection process that goes on. Only the strongest survive and this keeps a perfect balance. Save human intervention, our planet is delicately set up to survive, however, with excess human consumption and our destructive nature as we try to satisfy our greed, rather than needs, it begins to crumble. It would seem our banking system is not too dissimilar.

The recent announcement on the Royal Bank of Scotland's record losses has sent shockwaves through the economy and, just as perhaps a little confidence was creeping back into the financial sector, we find ourselves getting bombarded with headlines on jobs losses, bail-outs and a worsening economy. Fred Goodwin, a Knight of the Realm no less, is the media's new scapegoat and the man responsible for these remarkable losses. Derided for his bad decisions, he now leaves potentially tens of thousands looking over their shoulder and worrying about job losses. He reminds me, you might think bizarrely, of a cheetah featured in a recent programme I watched. Young, ambitious and attempting to show off his hunting abilities, he picked on a rather large animal with horns but clearly in some distress. Replace the cheetah chasing the buffalo with Sir Fred's pursuit of ABN. Similar to the cheetah, many felt he had bitten off more than he could chew but he pursued it anyway. Back to the cheetah and, after initially seeming to get a hold of the buffalo, a slight swing of the head and the cheetah was caught off guard, a horn pierces the thigh.

Although not a fatal wound, the cheetah was now immobile, unable to run at great speeds and, ultimately, unable to feed. The cheetah died. As the shockwaves reverberate around the finance sector and media from the RBS losses, the pursuit of ABN seems to have had a similar affect on Sir Fred's reputation. The hyenas circled around the ailing cheetah but the television team faded out on the inevitable consequence. Unfortunately, there will be no fade on the impact RBS will have on us all. Job losses are already being predicted and for those of us in the sector, we wonder when our turn might come.

<a class="bodl" href="/1/hi/business/7831356.stm">Read Mark's previous diary entries</a>

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