Betaville

Banks rows - Greenburgh cited - part 4

They do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So, Betaville is feeling rather flattered after reading today's City insider column in the venerable Financial Times.

One item in the column, written by senior FT hack Patrick Jenkins, is rather similar to tale about Matthew Greenburgh first aired on Betaville a few days ago. Below are the links:

https://www.www.betaville.co.uk/news/bank-rows-greenburgh-cited/

https://www.ft.com/content/8dc21ba0-ba5a-11e7-8c12-5661783e5589

Anyway, whilst ruminating over the above with a senior banking chum earlier today another bizarre Greenburgh tale from days gone by emerged.

The former Merrill Lynch banker - who in 2007 made a small fortune from advising RBS boss Fred Goodwin on the £67 billion takeover of ABN Amro - turned up to advise on the government bailouts of HBOS and RBS.

Apparently, one senior banker who worked on the rescue deals joked with Greenburgh about whether it was a good idea for him to be advising on these transactions given a year before he convinced Fred the shred to go for ABN Amro. Apparently, Greenburgh's response was:

"Bankers just advise. Clients decide."

Charming.....