Dominic Gates, 11 September 2009.
Today the IPT held the ‘Introduction to Banking’ meeting for parliamentary researchers in conjunction with Barclays Bank plc at Level 30 of their tower in Canary Wharf.
The event began with a presentation by Matt Hammerstein, Head of Group Strategy & Head of Staff to the Group Chief Executive, which introduced the audience to global financial service providers, such as Barclays. The presentation explained the key growth drivers within the financial services sector and outlined the many different elements of large global banks, such as, retail banking, commercial banking, credit banking, capital and investment banking. There were some interesting questions posed by the audience and equally some clarifying responses and answers from the orator. I had no idea of the extent of such a bank as Barclays who at face value appear to be predominantly a well-known retail banking branch you might see every day in your local high street, but in actual fact are a massive commercial and investment bank as well, whose global reach is enormous.
Following a short break for coffee, the presentations continued with a more in depth presentation and discussion about capital and investment banking. In light of the recent economic turmoil this proved to be very informative to the future movers and shakers of the political world. This presentation was made by Hamish Forbes, from Financial Markets Training, part of Barclays Capital. Hamish gave a detailed breakdown of the many sectors and markets that are encompassed by investment banking, both publicly and privately. Hamish explained in intricate detail the breakdown of how investment banking, financing and risk management work and described the process from beginning to end, including issuance and trading and all the way through to investors seeing their returns. The audience was again captivated and was certainly more informed afterwards. Both during and after this presentation the questions came hard and fast and the audience undoubtedly went to lunch feeling they could approach the topic in future with more confidence then before. I certainly did!
After lunch, Laura Tough, part of UK Consumer and Community Affairs from the UK Retail Banking sector of Barclays gave a presentation about retail banking for your everyday Joe Bloggs consumer. This touched home with me a lot more and seemingly with the rest of the audience as well. Questions again came flooding in and some interesting debate emerged surrounding whether or not banks should share information about consumers to better regulate and manage lending and borrowing for both those on the bottom rung of the banking ladder and for those who have saved their pennies for many years. This presentation was in my eyes the most exciting as it stirred some emotion in the audience regarding instances that have affected the constituents of the MPs they work for, and furthermore provoked some interesting responses from Barclays about the potential direction banking might take in the future.
The event had a great turnout with researchers from all the major UK political parties and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Also this was the first time I had been up in the Barclays tower, and the view was quite breathtaking. If you’re going to see Canary Wharf (and in fact London) then there is no better way than from 30 floors up!
To view photos of the seminar please click here.
