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Travelex Group, the foreign exchange provider, has appointed a relatively young banker, Peter Jackson, 34, at present in charge of consumer banking Lloyds Banking Group, as chief executive. The move prompted speculation that Travelex, where Lloyd Dorfman, the founder, retains a minority stake, may be heading for a stock market float.
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Sir Terry Leahy suffered the indignity of seeing Tesco knocked out of the top three global retailers by size, edged into fourth place by Metro, of Germany, owner of the Makro cash-and-carry chain, in a study from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the accountancy firm.
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? HandMade Films, the production company founded by the former Beatle George Harrison, has turned to an experienced City banker for its new chairman. Bob Benton has run Bridgewell, the stockbroker, and Charterhouse Securities, the merchant bank.
? The makers of cartoons featuring Peppa Pig, Suzy Sheep and Rebecca Rabbit have been forced to return to the drawing board. They will spend three months adding seat belts to old episodes of the children’s cartoon after complaints from parents. Said one producer: “We thought, this is a family of pigs, for God’s sake.”
? Paul Walton, 71 and chairman of Walton & Co, the retail bank, has started drumming up interest for a possible £200 million flotation.
? John Crompton, the banker who lost out to Robin Budenberg in the race to become chief executive of UK Financial Investments, has left the body, which manages the Government’s holdings in banks.
? Carnival Cruise Lines has turned down a request from a singles travel group for a second cruise for “cougars” — older females — and their younger male prey.
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? Natalie Ceeney, a former Labour Party activist with no experience in financial services, has been named chief executive and Chief Ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service.
? Stephen Hester, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, and himself in line for a possible £10 million bonus, told MPs that proposals to have bankers paid bonuses in shares rather than in cash would do nothing to curb excessive risk-taking.
? Michael Spencer, founder of Icap, the bonds broker, and Conservative Party Treasurer, has raised more than £45 million by selling part of his and his family’s stake in the business.
? An unprecedentedly long freight train, running to three and a half miles, raised concerns over safety as it rumbled through Southern California. The rail company denied plans to run such trains regularly in the future.
? Steve Thomas, the former bouncer who runs Luminar, the nightclub operator, is in advanced talks with HMV, the music group, over a partnership that could lead to an eventual takeover.
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? Peter Luff, the chairman of the Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, has said that he will be writing to the trustees of the MPs’ pension fund telling them not to accept the hostile Kraft offer for Cadbury.