Euroblog

We all know syndicate bankers are obsessed with windows. They love big, open windows and fear those elusive, ephemeral ones that suddenly slam shut at the slightest hint of a headwind, leaving a trade struggling for air.

Oh, the perils of working for National Australia Bank when the country that lends the institution its name manages to win a game of something against England. Just ask Teddington Cricket Club clubhouse manager Nigel Owen, who also dabbles in a bit of global syndicate directing at the firm.

We’re not entirely sure what was going on on Morgan Stanley’s syndicate desk nine months ago but Blog feels it is worthy of an arched eyebrow, for no less than two of its bankers are off on paternity leave this month.

Banks haven’t exactly been on a hiring spree of late. Despite a couple of solid, and even impressive, quarters for investment banks, EuroWeek’s back pages have been more concerned with goings than comings in the last couple of months.

We know what havoc the storm wreaked on RBS man Jez Walsh's garden a fortnight ago, toppling a 150 year-old chestnut tree. And we know that SocGen's Rupert Carter had the prescience to ensure that his house was not in danger from falling conifers by measuring the direction of the wind. But should Rupert's skills really have surprised us?

The financial maelstrom that enveloped global markets and caused untold damage to the global economy may finally be fading. But the storm that tore through the UK last week certainly left its mark.

Hordes of City workers were stranded at home on Monday as London was rocked to its very foundations by the biggest and most powerful storm the country has seen for years. In other news, life continued as normal.

What kind of banker leaves the World Bank's annual cocktail party at 10.30pm to go to the gym?

‘Blog is not essential to the running of EuroWeek and has been sent home on unpaid leave.’

The great and the good of Nomura’s bond market leviathan gathered to a terrace overlooking the Thames — or more precisely a room with large windows next to a terrace overlooking the Thames last week — to chew the fat with Blog and various of Blog’s competitors. Apparently, being a dangerous lot, we weren’t allowed on the terrace because of wind. No — it wasn’t because Blog had opted for vindaloo at lunch, but because there was too much of a gale to stand outside.

Competition for the hottest venue was fierce in Barcelona last week as bankers got down to some serious revelling after The Cover’s annual awards.

George Richardson, of World Bank fame, may just be the last of the great action heroes. The erstwhile naval aviator does not mind taking the highway to the danger zone. He proved this earlier in the summer by hiking his way up Mount Kilimanjaro.