FORGET casino bankers, they’re more like lottery bankers. Rich Ricci, the brash American co-chief of Barclays Capital, bought a Euromillions ticket on Friday evening.
Yes, a filthy rich banker — worth about £100m — gambled like a bored checkout operator last week in the hope of landing the £97m jackpot. Alas, his numbers didn’t come up.
Despite his vast wealth, £6m-a-year Ricci popped down to a newsagent in Canary Wharf to buy the ticket himself.
Dressed in banker braces — and looking a touch flushed — he pulled out a wad of notes to pay for it. Unluckily for him, a passer-by spotted him and got a picture — next time, Rich, send a lackey with the two quid.
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He’s not the only banker who enjoys a flutter. According to lottery boss Dianne Thompson, there is a spike in sales in the City and Canary Wharf whenever the jackpot reaches £75m.
Cowdery bowls out beancounter
CLIVE COWDERY has been wielding the axe again at the Savile Row headquarters of his Resolution financial empire. Ian Maidens, the former actuary who was lured to join Cowdery on the promise of great riches, is to leave.
Conspiracy theories abound as to the reason, although my mole says Maidens, 47, is likely to work three days a week as a consultant. He is not the only one.
Late last year, John Tiner, the former FSA chief executive, also went part-time at Resolution. Now Jim Newman, another of the core group, is also going to three days a week. Although they have all made millions from their association with Cowdery, it has not been as lucrative as promised — their share options are deeply underwater.
About 30 of the 45 or so staff in Savile Row are moving from Resolution to Friends Life, the listed insurer created from Cowdery’s last two big deals. The remainder are scouting deals in Europe and America. Looks like they will be busy.
Good luck, you poor fool
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CONGRATULATIONS to Mervyn Metcalf, the consumer and leisure banker who worked at Merrill Lynch and, more recently, Global Leisure Partners. He is setting up a boutique bank with Graeme Atkinson that will be called Dean Street Advisers and is based in — you guessed it — Dean Street in Soho. It is also where Metcalf, 40, lives in a flat stuffed with modern art. Sadly, not everyone was wowed by the news. One friend wrote to Metcalf: “Good luck ... I can hardly imagine a worse time to be starting.” There’s nothing like a few encouraging words.
Put that iPad away
QUIZ TIME. One is accused of defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of pounds, the other is guilty of using an iPad. So, who’s threatened with jail? The iPad user.
This came out of the Weavering Capital fraud case last week. The court ruled that clients of the hedge fund had been deceived, and damages of $450m (£289m) were awarded. Since the Serious Fraud Office dropped its inquiry into Weavering, there’s little chance of jail for anyone at the fund.
An iPad user had a closer scrape. The judge, Mrs Justice Proudman, warned: “There are people in the public gallery who appear to be using an iPad ... it is a contempt of court for which I can impose an immediate sentence of imprisonment.”
A more important engagement
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GUESS who won’t be rocking up to the jubilee pageant today? Justice secretary Ken Clarke, Barclays chairman Marcus Agius and former business secretary Lord Mandelson. They’re all in Chantilly, Virginia, for the annual Bilderberg meeting. This is the elite club that conspiracy theorists think runs the world — and the schedule suggests they could be right. On the menu are transatlantic relations, evolution of the political landscape in Europe and America, austerity and growth in developed economies, cyber-security, energy challenges, the future of democracy, Russia, China and the Middle East. Nothing too heavy then ...