NOT BAND AID, BUT BOND AID
As rock stars wept at the globally-televised Live Aid concert, organized by Bob Geldof last July, Mona Siddique had an idea. "I was doing the ironing,' said the 25-year-old salesperson from Daiwa Europe. "I thought, the City of London has such a bad reputation with the general public--so after Band Aid, why not Bond Aid?'
Bond Aid--a mock bond issue syndicated among the international banking community to raise funds for the African famine--is finally a reality. But it didn't happen the way Siddique intended.
Siddique started off in the most obvious way: she wrote to Geldof. There was no reply. Weeks later, she was talking over her idea in a Salzburg cafe with a client. "He slammed his hand on the table and said "I'm in'--pledging a large sum of money on the spot.'
With confidence rekindled, Siddique wrote to the AIBD (Association of International Bond Dealers). After an initial positive response, there was a prolonged silence. Finally the AIBD wrote that it wasn't the body to do the job.
Why did it bypass such an opportunity to assert its position as the market's representative body? The AIBD told Euromoney: "After lengthy discussions in Zurich we decided that there could be a danger of our members feeling coerced into making a donation.'