Author: Amber Pierce The Natural History Museum in London was the setting for Euromoney’s first foray into hosting a dinner for the annual awards for excellence. In all 550 bankers and their entourages turned up on the evening on July 12, several fresh from taking part in the 3.5 mile Chase Challenge run in Battersea Park (at least we hope they were fresh).
Three musicians on stilts entertained the guests as they entered. After an hour of catching up with the competition over a glass or three of champagne, everyone trooped through to the main hall to sit down for dinner, with the giant diplodocus skeleton in the middle of the room as the main attraction.
For those who dislike beetroot and love cheese, the meal was a minor disappointment and the peppercorns inside the strawberry meringue were something of a surprise. But very soon into the meal many had abandoned their seats to mingle again.
Getting them back to their seats for the awards was tough enough; keeping them quiet was a near impossibility. But soon Euromoney’s managing director, Simon Brady, who was acting as compere, added a touch of humour. Having kicked of the awards presentation with Most Improved Bank to Banco Santander Central Hispano Brady grabbed the crowd’s attention by announcing the award for best smaller investment bank instead of the scheduled best emerging markets bank. He recovered by admitting: “Obviously I’m talking absolute rubbish.”
Assisting Brady in presenting the awards were four buy-side big-wigs, and the one who sparked the evening was Ayesha Shah, deputy treasurer of the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development. This feisty banker began her spot with an amusing stab at the hosts before inflicting her sarcasm on all those to whom she presented awards. It was a timely reminder to the bankers that they still have a long way to go to impress their clients.
Not all the presentations managed to raise the roof, but one that did was for best forex house. Citi, or Schroder Salomon Smith Barney Citibank Citicorp Citigroup Travelers Primerica Handlowy Nikko to give it its full title, appeared invincible, having won it every year since Euromoney began the survey in 1992.
This year Deutsche knocked it of the top, and a deep, stadium-like roar filled the room, a roar more at home at a football game than at an awards dinner. It was to be repeated when Deutsche went up to collect the award for best bank, which it landed despite its failed merger attempt with Dresdner.
The rest of the crowd was more interested in one of Deutsche Bank’s eight tables: the one made up solely of women. Men from other tables were taking bets on who might succeed with whom.
According to one of the targeted Deutsche women, at least four different groups of men asked them what bank produced such fine women and if there were any job openings…
Unfortunately for the would-be suitors, no-one seemed to get any enticing offers but a few managed to make themselves heard after trying their hand at the piano.
Towards the end of the awards ceremony, came a special achievement award, the PricewaterhouseCoopers Award for Capital Markets Achievement. It went to Charlie Berman, head of European fixed income at Salomon Smith Barney. As he made his way to the stage, sans pony tail, the audience gave a standing ovation.
Berman has battled away at Salomon for years, but only in the last two, since the merger with Travelers and then Citicorp, has he truly reaped the benefits of his toil.
He was the only winner to give a speech, yet kept his remarks uncharacteristically short and sweet. “I am rarely humbled, rarely embarrassed, and rarely speechless. Tonight I’m all three.”
Two awards were not presented on the night, however. The award for the bank that booked the most tables without winning an award, and the award for best bank at changing its name as frequently as possible. Both go to UBS Warburg.
