Goodbye, cosy world Big Bang's impact on that most hallowed of
City institutions -- British gilts -- is set to be as dramatic as on any
of London's financial markets. To a market dominated by two
jobbing firms and in which deals are still handwritten into the
jobbers' ledgers and prices altered by pencil, the new rules to be
introduced on October 27 will totally transform this cosiest of worlds.
On that day, the traditional practice of single capacity dealing by
jobbers and brokers will vanish and be replaced by a system in which
both functions are merged into what is known as the dual capacity
method. With it goes the much vaunted principle of separating the two
functions plus that of fixed commissions to brokers which, it is said,
has kept the market "gentlemanly and uncompetitive".
In its place, the Bank of England, which oversees the government
bond market, has...
