Due discredit
IT IS nice to find the Governor of the Bank of England in gubernational form — haul- ing bankers in by the ears, throwing out their inadequate responses, decreeing who and what won't do in the best Montague Norman style. He is enforcing standards by precept and by example, and making clear that the buck stops at the top. (I wonder how long Lord Catto will remain as chair- man of Morgan Grenfell. He was 64 last month, and friends say that he has been wanting to ease out for some time.) A Governor so plainly disposed not to stand nonsense from anybody is the right man to distinguish sense from nonsense about City scandal. He took up, this week, a theme of this column — that fraud in the City, and fraud on the City, and fraud by the City's customers, and fraudulent abuse of the City's facilities are not all the same thing: `The City itself is not guilty just because a guilty man draws a cheque on a bank there.' Using 'City' as a portmanteau word for anyone or anything, anywhere that writes cheques is a quick way to conjure up bogus City scandals. Discredit, says the Governor like a good banker, where dis- credit is due.
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