What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?
The same applies at home, he says, to the elaborate formalities of the livery companies that underpin the City’s civic life. Though few participants have any connection to the original medieval crafts and trades, these ancient guilds are enjoying a revival, and those that don’t have premises of their own often use the Mansion House’s magnificent Egyptian Hall for their white-tie dinners. ‘We had the plumbers in yesterday,’ he says — referring to the Worshipful Company that traces itself to 1365 rather than, say, a couple of Poles to bleed the radiators. ‘People love it. It’s gives them pizzazz and sophistication, and it brings some good old traditional values into their lives. Don’t forget the City liveries generate £42 million a year for charities.’
The pendulum must swing
Salesmanship apart, Gifford knows there’s a repair job to be done on the City’s reputation. Professionally, he’s been in the thick of it for 35 years, rising to become head of the UK arm of Skandinaviska Enskilda bank of Sweden after running its Tokyo branch, as well as chairing the Association of Foreign Banks in London, which represents 175 member firms. Does he think the cautious, low-key, socially engaged Scandinavian banking model has something to teach the excitable and essentially selfish Anglo–Saxon one? ‘The Swedes had their own banking crisis 20 years ago and came out of it stronger. Their way of banking is the product of a smaller, more transparent society, which binds everyone in.’
But he agrees that ‘lots of people would like to see the City pendulum swing’ back towards the client-driven approach he learned at Warburgs as a graduate trainee in the 1970s, and away from the short-termist bonus-hunting that has done so much damage. He thinks that’s beginning to happen of its own accord, through market forces. ‘Disproportionate’ pay packages are disappearing, and he’s dead against the EU legislative cap on bonuses: ‘Remuneration is for shareholders to look at.’ But he’s a strong supporter of the common-sense banking controls outlined by Andrew Bailey of the Bank of England’s new Prudential Regulation Authority, and an admirer of the retiring Governor, Sir Mervyn King, who has never hidden his contempt for bankers’ excess.
Of course it’s the Lord Mayor’s job to accentuate the positive and stand up for his financial constituents. ‘Barrow boys made this City what it is!’ he declares, momentarily in Boris mode — then looks worried when I write the phrase down. But having spent his own working life in the capital markets, Gifford clearly takes seriously the question of ‘the proper role of banks in society’. Perhaps in the time left before he hands over to the lawyer Fiona Woolf (who succeeds in November as the second female Lord Mayor) he should release his inner Boris and speak out freely on the unresolved moral issues — the more bracing the better.
Meanwhile, back to architectural symbolism. If you happen to be passing the Mansion House, look up at the allegorical frieze by Sir Robert Taylor (1712–1788) on the tympanum of its Corinthian portico. To the right, a boy bears the cap of liberty; to the left, another attendant holds an olive-branch and cornucopia; in the centre, a female embodiment of the City tramples on her enemies. Those were the days.
Martin Vander Weyer
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