Any Other Business | 30 October 2010

Good news for the governor: a groundswell of responses to the era of bad banking

‘Of all the many ways of organising banking,’ declared the Governor of the Bank of England this week, ‘the worst is the one we have today.’ That spurred me to continue my search for ‘relationship banking’ — and the latest batch of readers’ nominations suggest, encouragingly, that unreformed practitioners still survive even within our shamed and bailed-out mega-banks. Julie Clark of NatWest in Yeovil represents ‘a return to the days of kindness, courtesy and great competence’; for Marc Roxby of Lloyds in Guernsey, ‘nothing is difficult’; as for Barry White — not the late, great soul singer, though many ladies no doubt dreamed of opening an account with him, but a London executive of Royal Bank of Scotland: ‘Quite strict, not profligate with the bank’s money, but he does make the time to listen to what we have to say about our business and act accordingly.’