Euroblog

Creditjockee Credibility? The boys and girls at RBS can forget it. Last Friday, their analysts put out their searching review of the UK big five in the banking sector. I quote: "UK banks look to be focusing on their core businesses in 2007 — tuning the dials rather than planning radical changes or large scale M&A."

Cashier@boisedales.comWe had a record night in the Piano Bar on Wednesday — some geezer was changing jobs and his banker mates came in to bid him farewell.

Bond Bitch This week we bring you reports of the greatest international cross-cultural event outside the cricket World Cup.

NFI@hsbc.com

piedpiper2247Ooops, emerging market veteran Ricardo Zemella at ING almost ended up in his wife's bad books this week. He was so busy working on ATF's and Soyuz's transactions that he got his dates mixed up.

EurohackOne should never criticise one's host, but we couldn't help but be disappointed by Lehman's poor timekeeping on Tuesday. The corporate comms guys were 30 minutes late and Lorenzo Frontini and his syndicate team were a whole hour late.

Leaguetables@dealogic.com The bond market babies league has had a new add-on this week, courtesy of Merrill Lynch's own Nick 'Big Nose' Dent. He was going to get just co-lead points, but given the baby's name, Denty is getting extra credit.

fashionpolice@ml.comCalling all cars! Offender at large!

alansugar@bbc.co.ukThe glorious progress of The Apprentice continues. For those of you who've been stuck in the toilet for the last five years, that's the hit reality television show in which I bully young hopefuls and sack them all except one, who is rewarded with an apprenticeship in one of my companies.

santa@northpole.com Ho ho ho, I thought I would give you an early Christmas present but quite a lot of you have been naughty this year...so as a punishment you are getting two pictures of Charlie Berman's waxing charity stunt... one before and one after.

Bond Bitch Christmas is certainly not the season for being kind as far as Dresdner's Stefan "The Axe" Jentzsch is concerned. Why wait until after Christmas to start wielding the axe?

healthandsafety@abnamro.com The end of year travelling our bankers are doing is taking a serious toll on the health of our boys, none more so than on Chalky White and Massimo Antonelli.