The Gnomes of EC2
ALL THIS has come a godsend to our great banks. They are getting nowhere with their basic business, lending money — in the first half of this year. National West- minster had £2 billion paid back to it and they are still chasing much of the money they lent last time. Backstage, though, in their foreign exchange dealing rooms, business is blazing. Foreign exchange is the world's biggest market, London has the largest share, some banks like to play for their own account, the biggest scarcely need to. One of them has a simple rule: the bank must never stand to lose more for itself than it stands to gain on commissions from its customers. Compa- nies trading with France, investors holding French securities, MPs heading for holiday cottages in the Dordogne, none of them wanted to be left holding francs when the music stopped. They, of course, are the speculators — not the young men in red braces, nor the banks and brokers who employ them. Even the self-publicising cur- rency traders are no more than a drop in this ocean. The French call it a conspiracy and blame the Anglo-Saxon press, which makes me (I am proud to say) a Gnome of London EC 2.
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