PR Week reports that the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) executive director of communications Lesley McLeod says the banks are getting a bum rap because of “inexperienced’” reporters who “fail to understand the crisis” or the “issues” it presents. What, and the BBA has to sit idly by? Why doesn’t it get stuck in? Read on ›

Barclay’s Chief Executive, John Varley, has been brilliant on Sky TV, the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (and later this week on Panorama). Not a moment before time, we have a senior current banking figure not only talking (that’s very rare) but talking like a human being. Read on ›

Cleared snow from our road. Went to Basel. Got back and my wife said I had a letter from Peter Kurer, chairman of UBS. Whoopee. And yikes. Perhaps he’s suing me over my blog. Read on ›

Carly Fiorina, the former chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, is spot-on in advising CEOs on how to restore trust in their role. Read on ›

Here is a good example of preemptive crisis management. It is a text-book example of how to manage a controversial issue by facing up to market realities. Read on ›

Sorry to blow my own trumpet, but I have a piece in the Wall Street Journal (Europe) today. Read on ›

Yesterday Barclays Bank won the vote to endorse its billions of Arab fund-raising. Its board was attacked from all sides, even by those voting for the deal. Welcome to the world of recession business. Clients are going to have hard cases to sell. That’s our real job. It’ll be exhilarating. Read on ›

There’s an arctic snow storm outside. Even my Dachshund refuses to leave the house. So whilst we’re gratefully holed up in my Swiss home I’m going to write about those losing theirs in the UK. Naturally, I’m interested in the explanations given by the institutions which are turfing them out. Read on ›

As I dug in to my morning Muesli here on the Zurich lake I caught up with yesterday’s FT. There I read an amusing editorial about Barclays being the listening, theatrical bank that headed off a shareholder revolt by the skin of its teeth. It’s true though: in a very clumsy fashion, Barclays and its shareholders are forging a brave new world. The implications for financial PR are profound. Read on ›

I’ve just had Sunday lunch of “Ravioli, suedafrikanische Scampi und weisser Curry” at the Kronenhalle bar in Zurich, haunt of Swiss bankers celebrating deals. The conversation turned to bankers and grovelling. Read on ›