BGC sells recovery trade

Keen to kick off the new year on an optimistic note, Euromoney recently attended a seminar in London hosted by BGC Partners on the subject of recovery. Held in Bloomberg’s glitzy Finsbury Square auditorium, the stage was set for an evening of discussion about how things could only get better. Only the four speakers – Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England; government minister Lord Digby Jones; Sir James Sassoon, adviser to shadow chancellor George Osborne’s office; and Jeffrey Hogan of BGC Partners itself – seemed far from optimistic. In a thought-provoking speech about the risks inherent in a shadow banking industry operating at the periphery of regulation, Tucker observed: "It is wrong to say that we are witnessing once-in-a-generation change to global financial services. We are seeing the kind of change that happens once in two or three generations." Digby Jones, in his role as minister of state for UK trade and investment, attempted to lighten the mood with a robust defence of the UK’s manufacturing clout – rather too much of which seemed to rely on the manufacture of Airbus aircraft wings. But recovery was definitely in evidence among attendees once the champagne and some particularly fine canapés were in evidence and UK TV personalities Rory Bremner, John Bird and John Fortune took over. Empathizing with any audience concerns about taxpayer largesse drying up, Bremner decided to channel FDR and declare "You have nothing to fear but recovery itself!" Bird and Fortune urged banks to continue paying bankers large bonuses as an incentive for doing boring things – in case they decided to start doing innovative and risky things again. But one thing on which everyone could agree was what BCG should also stand for: Bloody Good Catering.