A row in the club
'LOOK here, Rufie', said Lord Kindersley of Lazards to Lord Bicester of Morgan Grenfell, 'is it too late to stop this business or not?' This fruity morsel of insider burble was quoted by Kindersley himself to the bank rate tribunal, to show that in the clubby City of 30 years ago, Morgan and Lazards were clubbier than anyone. The City changed, the old friends quarrelled and went in opposite ways — most of all in the approach to Big Bang. Morgan, riding high as the great maker of bids and deals, planned to buy brokers and jobbers, hire dealers and traders, and turn itself into a world-class investment bank. Not so Lazards. Sir Ian Fraser, Lazards' chair- man, told me at once that Big Bang would turn out to be a landmine, and his bank would not go near it. In the event it exploded under Morgan. The grand plan came apart, and with it, Morgan's chance of an independent future. One official and one unofficial historian have told different parts of the story (a bad third is still finishing the course). Sir Ian this week reviews their histories (on page 27) and adds some distinctive footnotes of his own. City eyebrows will rise into orbit at Mor- gan's clashes with the Accepting Houses Committee, the City's traditional corps d'elite. 1 add only that the chairman of the Accepting Houses Committee, from 1981, to 1985, was Sir Ian Fraser.
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