He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for Eddie’s sake

Bill McDonough once preached to Wall Street from the pulpit of Trinity Church, taking his text from St Matthew and reminding his astonished hearers of their duty to their neighbours. Lord George (Eddie, still, in the City) prefers to take his text from J. Fred Coots and Henry Gillespie, authors of the 1930s classic ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’. To an astonished banquet of bankers in Guildhall on Monday, he warbled his message: ‘You better be good, for goodness sake.’ A warning came with it: ‘He knows if you’ve been bad or good.’ This was Santa, an example to central bankers everywhere. When Eddie was governing the Bank of England and his friend Bill ran the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, they knew very well who had been bad or good on their patches. Now, though, Lord George is Master of the Guild of International Bankers, which is the City’s newest livery company, his friend was this week’s guest of honour, and they both of them think that something new is needed. By this, of course, they mean something old: decency, fairness, integrity and the trust that should go with them. None of these could be taken for granted, of late, in financial markets on either side of the Atlantic, and some banks and bankers — in conjunction with their clients — have felt able to economise on them or do without them. The Guild, at its master’s prompting, has now tried to sum them up in five principles of good behaviour, which its members must uphold. In this way, without preaching, they might remind others in the City of their duty to their neighbours.

No ticks, no boxes

This will come as a surprise and a challenge to the growth industry which calls itself corporate social responsibility. Read all about it in the self-satisfied supplements that distend every major company’s report and accounts.