ALISTAIR Darling, the chancellor, and Archie Kane, Lloyds Banking Group's top man in Scotland, spent Friday lunchtime briefing Scottish financiers, journalists and sundry business people in Edinburgh's Signet Library that the future is not as bleak as some would have it.
A 51-page report on the future of the UK financial services industry presented the case for a sector that, for all its weaknesses and setbacks, remains vital to everyone's wellbeing.
But even this report, produced after a year-long inquiry chair
ed by City veteran Sir Winfried Bischoff, a former chairman of Schroders and Citigroup, only serves as a starting point by establishing and defining where we are and what needs to be done.
As a work of reference it cannot be faulted. But there is not much more to it than that. It is more of an inventory and to-do list than a blueprint for how we get from A to B. It states that "it is not the aim of the report – nor have we tried – to recommend a lengthy list of measures".
It was no surprise, therefore, that Darling and Kane were only able to speak in general terms about the "significance" and "importance" of the financial services sector and were unable to offer much more than a need to improve the regulatory environment, introduce an "appropriate" tax regime, upskill the workforce and innovate in new products (though not the sort that got us into this mess in the first place).
They did their best to sound as if there was something new about all this while coming across like two football coaches giving a demoralised team a half-time pep talk: "Keep it up lads, you may have taken a first half thrashing, but you'll pull through."
Kane sidestepped my question about how Lloyds Banking Group would be making its own "significant" contribution to Scotland amid continuing talk of a Lloyds cull of jobs and functions. "We intend to get through the financial services crisis as quickly as possible. We intend to grow our business," he replied, adding that "the recovery will come and when it does we, and others, intend to be strong and to be here for our customers."
Well, that's reassuring. I think.
Justin appears to be King of all he surveysTHERE will be no avoiding Sir Stuart Rose this week as he unveils another difficult set of results for Marks & Spencer – and the pain will be felt more by shareholders than those ladies who like to moan about the lingerie range. A sharp cut in the dividend will be a blow to investors who have seen the shares fall 18 per cent in the past 12 months but tick up since the turn of the year.
The big questions about splitting Rose's dual role as chairman and chief executive and whether he'll do some sort of deal with Sainsbury's Justin King – a merger or a handover – are yet to be answered. It's doubtful that we'll be any clearer on either front on Tuesday.
Instead, Rose will remind us that trading remains tough and will be so for some time. However, it may only serve to fuel the speculation of an eventual Sainsbury's takeover which gathered pace last week when the supermarket chain delivered a handsome set of figures.
With Sainsbury's now the larger of the two businesses and King's star continuing to rise he may find M&S less appealing than hitherto. But the British public reserves a special place for M&S and would welcome someone who could perform the sort of restoration that Rose pulled off after his scrap with would-be buyer Sir Philip Green, the owner of Bhs.
Pressure on for BAA to decide on appealAIRPORTS operator BAA will have to decide by tomorrow whether to appeal against the Competition Commission's ruling that it should sell Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airport.
The board is said to be wavering on whether challenging the verdict through the Competition Appeals Tribunal would be worth the trouble and expense. A decision has to be made by close of business and could well be left until then.
But the case for at least delaying the sales process is hard to contest at a time when asset values are depressed.
Buyers would normally be queuing up to acquire assets that are rarely made available but there has been a low turnout for Gatwick and those that have made offers have pitched them substantially below the £2bn that BAA was hoping to get.
While it was fiercely opposed to the break-up it would expect to achieve a price that would help alleviate its heavy debt burden.
