Cooke's tour
PETER Cooke has retired early from the Bank of England, leaving a monument all around the world. His financial diplomacy brought the agreement which established common standards for banks — first be- tween Britain and the United States, and now in every major financial centre. It is designed to let the world's banks compete on fair and level terms and in reasonable safety. Mr Cooke chaired the committee of central bankers which devised it. They say rather smugly that ministers, with national amour propre prickling them, would never have agreed. Have they, then, no reward, no appointment which would have served to keep Mr Cooke among their number? His agreement has to be its own reward. It was his bad luck to be standing in the wrong place when Johnson Matthey Bank- ers blew up, and when the debris de- scended quite a lot of it was arranged round his neck. This year two of the Bank's four executive directorships fell vacant, but Mr Cooke, an associate director, received neither. Now he is off to Price Water- house, to head the accountants' world regulatory advisory group — which seems to mean that, when any banker from Tokyo to San Francisco does not under- stand the Cooke rules, he can call up Price Waterhouse and, for a fee, ask.
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