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Rory Stewart plans to build an aligned post-Brexit City


Rory Stewart

House guest+builder 

Rory Stewart, the ex-Tory minister turned London mayoral candidate, blamed a mild weariness while visiting FT towers on the 550 nights (and counting) he has spent sleeping on strangers’ floors — as part of his #ComeKipWithMe mission to understand social issues. But it seems he wants even more floorboards to bed down on, in the capital at least. As part of an electoral pledge to build 250,000 affordable homes on disused Transport for London land, he has been talking to housebuilders about setting up a Mayor’s Building Company. Given the industry’s reputation, potential partners could probably also do with a crash-course in social issues — especially as City Insider hears one is more Berkeley Square than Bermondsey. Finance should not be a problem, though, if the word on EC2 streets is to be believed. However, other denizens of the Square Mile might need to seek affordable homes in other cities, if Stewart wins in November. He reckons the City of London should have “an embassy” in Paris, Berlin, Brussels and Warsaw to make the argument for post-Brexit alignment. Rory would be sure to visit them and he promises to bring chocolates for his hosts. Even to Belgium. 

Paul Pester 

TSB: a Fairer outcome

Paul Pester, former boss of technologically-challenged challenger bank TSB, has found a new job. Not manning the helpline at Reynholm Industries in a reprise of Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd — although, while trying to fix TSB’s online platform, he might have employed their classic advice of “turning it off and on again”. Instead, Pester has become chair of the consumer panel of Fairer Finance, the independent bank rating service. His role will be to ensure it cannot be swayed by commercial clients — not good news for TSB, which comes 29th out of 34 in its rankings. But, for Pester, it seems a good crowd to be in with, as it will allow him to be re-cast as the customer champion he always was. Friends note his pioneering moves to break the link between bank bonuses and sales, and his restraint on pay. “This guy deserves to do what he is good at,” says one. “If it helps him rebuild his reputation, great. We’ve seen people in financial services handle much more heinous situations and then pop up at another FTSE 100 company.” City Insider cannot think who they might be referring to. 

Anne Boden

Starling’s rapid tweets

All fintechs claim to be “agile”. But Anne Boden, boss of UK digital bank Starling, seems quicker on her feet than her counterpart at Germany’s N26, Valentin Stalf. Within hours of the Berlin-based lender announcing its withdrawal from the UK market as it has only an EU licence, Ms Boden’s marketeers were targeting its customers via Facebook and Twitter. Or engaging in “expert trolling” as one FT wag put it. Meanwhile, N26’s techies were desperately trying delete a blog post that said: “N26 is preparing for Brexit . . . Whatever the outcome, your account is protected: we are 100 per cent focused on ensuring minimum disruption.” A claim somewhat at odds with its slogan: “Banking. But without the bullshit”. 

Sir Anthony Habgood

Bunzl is to Relx, as . . . 

He used to be chair of Bunzl. He’s stepping down as chair of Relx. But does Anthony Habgood have the energy to chair another FTSE 100 group? If he does, it will presumably have to be strongly performing, slightly dull, and consonant-heavy. Halma? Segro? Shame Kazakhmys only met one of those criteria.



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