City boozy not a option anymore25 Dec 2024 13:12
the london stock exchange started in jonathan’s coffee house in change alley, while lloyd’s of london is named after a coffee house proprietor in tower street called edward lloyd. these historic city institutions grew from tittle-tattle between strangers. now executives are so terrified of putting their foot in it that meetings have become sterilised, with no time to bed in for a proper gossip.
with red tape and home working, the art of a good tete-a-tete is diminishing. the city has become so risk averse that now going to a flower show or having a beer over lunch is seen as potentially scandalous.
as one investor says: “anything beyond a coffee is an arrestable offence unless it has been documented – entertaining is similar. interpersonal relationships are increasingly fraught with danger. maybe necessary, but life is more boring as a result. you might as well be a librarian.”
many feel this way. while the power lunch certainly appears to be back in other industries – you better book well in advance if you want to go to a popular central london restaurant for a weekday lunch – some fear there has been an americanisation of the city.
one bank boss complains “gone are the days of the traditional city lunches that lasted for several hours, with port and brandy and cigars to polish everything off. another person weighs in: “i went for ****tails with a us investor, fully expecting a few drinks, and they ordered ice water for the whole evening. the city feels more american and serious.”
a city chief agrees there’s “a very professional attitude these days” and that “ordering a glass of wine with lunch tends to be the sort of thing that raises an eyebrow”, while dinners finish early.
some believe the blizzard of red tape which engulfed the city since the financial crash needs to be rolled back. “there is a bit of a pendulum effect,” city grandee sir philip hampton told my colleagues earlier this year. risk was “largely disregarded” before the financial crisis, but in his view the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction.
the uk will next year face even more pressure to deregulate to keep up with donald trump’s pledge to slash red tape in the us. rachel reeves has promised to reboot britain’s “crown jewel” financial industry with better regulation. at her mansion house speech last month, she said red tape had “gone too far” in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
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