The uses of power
I AM old enough to have gone to the very first press conference of Hambros Bank. `Are you going into unit trusts, Mr Ham- bro?"Well, yes, we do plan to start some.' `Why, Mr Hambro?"Naturally, to im- prove our placing power.' The power to place shares in receptive, even docile, hands is invaluable to a merchant banker, but even then he was not quite supposed to say so, and now — in the age of the Chinese walls which separate the dealmak- er from the investment manager — it can imply serious trouble. Placing power is the issue of the Department of Trade and Industry's inquiry into County Natwest, the merchant banking arm of the National Westminster Bank. In September last year County NatWest and its brokers placed £435 million of Blue Arrow shares: how, where, on what understanding, to whose knowledge, at whose expense, and how far conforming with what was declared at the time? These are proper questions. What is wrong with this inquiry is that it has been launched 15 months after the event, and can continue indefinitely. These DTI in- quiries take years (ask John Ritblat, or anyone at Guinness). The reports lie around in Whitehall while lawyers peck over them, some reports are never pub- lished, some inspectors may never report. This inquiry hangs over the conduct, and in that sense the credit, of our biggest bank, and that concerns all of us. In all our interests, Lord Young should set his in- spectors a time limit.
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