I
n 1978 the new Pope John Paul 1st tried to sweep away freema-
sons and other elements of the Vatican Bank, for years a big player in the financial markets guided by its infamous governor Archbishop Marcinkus; the Pope lived for 33 days before dying of a ―heart attack‖. None of his plans were implemented. Roberto Calvi of Banco Ambrosiano ―was suicided‖ under Blackfriars Bridge in1982 and later Michele Sindona was poisoned in 1986.
I
n 1980 I joined Saudi International Bank, the major shareholder
being the central bank of the King- dom (SAMA) supported by Morgan Guaranty Trust and other major international banks. A very interesting time which saw high interest rates with Sterling above US$2, followed by a deep recession and dropping to $1.05 in 1985 and back up to US$2 in the 90s. I was appointed to the Bank of England Foreign Exchange sub-committee and became Chairman of the London Forex Association and subsequently chairman of the Committee for Ethics and Professionalism,
I
n 1990 when they opened their London Branch I joined the oldest
existing bank in the world Monte dei Paschi di Siena, established in 1472 which of course had also been close to the Vatican. The Conservative Government joined the ERM to shadow the D Mark at 2.95 but after terrible economic performance inter- est rates were forced to 10% then
15% in Sept 1992 and sterling fell to DM 2.20.
I
n1997 the Labour Government gave the Bank of England
responsibility to maintain CPI at 2% with the use interest rates as its only tool for this task. One of the Government‘s disastrous decisions was to relieve the central bank of its traditional role of supervising banks in the UK and to delegate this to the young and inexperienced FSA. It was in 1999 that I joined the FSA as one of only a handful in their 60s, out of a staff of several thousand who seemed to be mostly in their late 20s or early 30s. My job was to supervise some of the major Japanese banks whose senior officials made it clear that they would only communicate with men of a ―certain age and experience.‖ It was in one of their offices that I watched the horror of 9/11/2001 unfold on the TV. On 1st April 2002 when three Japanese banks merged to become the biggest bank in the world I retired.
T T
hen In between all this I have managed to have one ex-wife,
one current wife (God bless her), one son, two daughters and an adopted son, have made several close friends. travelled a lot and enjoyed many good acquaintance- ships.
hen came Rotary!
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