Wall game
FROM Lloyd's lost leader, Ian Hay Davi- son, comes a mine under the City's pro- liferating Chinese walls — the fortifications which will be supposed to stop a bank's investment managers getting together with its securities traders. Mr Davison, Lloyd's chief executive until his thunderous res- ignation, points out that the notorious PCW agency was brought by a broker under rules laid down by Lloyd's commit- tee to prevent interference: 'The parent company was denied information about the subsidiary's activities, only one parent company director was allowed, and the agency's errors and omissions insurance was severed from that of its broker parent. Behind that perfect example of a Chinese wall, £40 million was abstracted from the Names.' Moral for City regulators and for bank directors: If you insist on the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, the right hand will creep into the till.
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