Tony North, Brian Jamieson and Daniel Butcher, the millionaire entrepreneurs behind previous forex firms Schneider and HiFX, have lost no time in spotting an Ashes opportunity for their new travel money venture Centtrip: they’re sponsoring the bat of England all-rounder Ben Stokes.
In a quote that Spy is sure came straight from the heart, Stokes said: “I am very pleased and excited to be associated with Centtrip, and hope that our partnership helps raise awareness amongst travelling fans about the undoubted benefits of their world-class currency account.”
Stokes is known to be a close follower of developments in the fast-moving forex world.
I’m not always Mac the knife, says Barclays wag
After the dry, dull nature of Antony Jenkins, his stand-in executive chairman John McFarlane fairly sparkles with wit.
Given his track record at Aviva, where he got rid of chief executive Andrew Moss even before becoming chairman, he quipped: “I am used to working with chief executives and I don’t remove them in every case.”
Business news in pictures - July 9
HSBC analysts' omission
HSBC number-crunchers dug down into banking stocks to work out which are most affected by the Greece crisis.
They decided lenders, including Barclays and Lloyds, have limited exposure to Greece so should be able to cope with the turbulence.
They forgot to mention, however, that HSBC has the largest exposure of any of the European banks, with around $6 billion (£3.9 billion) of Greek assets.
Funny that.
Backing a bust facelift firm no boob, says buyer
German-listed Aurelius clearly doesn’t think swooping for a company linked with botched boobs is a bum deal.
Buying Transform Medical Group out of administration means fans of the cosmetic surgery firm, which has a home in Harley Street, can sleep at night knowing they can still have a place to go to for tummy tucks, hair transplants and the like.
Spy remembers a few years back when Transform hit the headlines after some women reported that breast enlargement procedures using Poly Implant prostheses had ruptured.
It said there were no findings that it was negligent in supplying them. May the path forward be boom rather than bust.
