The Matthew Devlin story of insider trading is the stuff of movies. The protagonists are glamorous bankers and a PR executive at the centre of big Wall Street deals. There’s even a former Playboy model. In the current spate of capitalist dramas, this is merely a piquant sub-plot. 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 ›

Wal-Mart’s business and reputation are growing. CEO Lee Scott is leaving the company on a deserved high. There’s a twist: it looks like the “bad” old lean Wal-Mart is what’s doing well, not the reborn touchy-feely version. Read on ›

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

Last week I had coffee with a PR executive who helped manage Thursday’s UBS shareholders’ meeting in Lucerne. We met at Sprüngli on the Paradeplatz, the branch of the posh chocolate, cake and coffee shop favoured by wives of Zurich gnomes. He gave me an insider’s account of his work to restore trust in the Swiss icon. Read on ›

There’s only one big lesson in the age of celebrity, spin and schmooze. People only really, deeply care about whether you can do your job. Read on ›

A new survey reports that over two-thirds of consumers “would remain loyal to a brand during a recession if it supports a good cause”. Why wouldn’t they say so? And so what? Let’s try a little rebelliousness here. 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 ›