Shallow pool
Shallow pool
WHO will succeed Sir Philip Hampton as Royal Bank of Scotland chairman?
The bizarre suggestion from a London newspaper that it should be Gordon Brown or Alistair Darling was greeted with horror by a senior banker at RBS's Edinburgh reception this week, who nevertheless admitted there was "a very small pool" of truly suitable candidates.
The man leading the hunt, £186,000-a-year senior independent director Sir Sandy Crombie, agreed it was no easy task, noting that bank non-executives now put in "100 days a year" on the job. But there are compensations. The cheapest RBS director received £132,000 last year and the new chairman can expect to command £750,000.
Teasers no more
ROSS McEwan, the New Zealander now heading RBS, waxed lyrical at the bank's annual Edinburgh bash on Tuesday night about his banking revolution.
"We are not going to grab someone else's customers by paying them more to come to us than we are giving to someone who has been with the bank for 30 years," he told The Bottom Line. He noted that TSB had already followed its lead on disavowing product "teaser rates". Bank chairman Sir Philip Hampton said the McEwan team was now "leading voices across the industry" in challenging the notion that banks can only win if customers lose.
Keep on truckin'
IT is funny how one's priorities change as time passes, as Glasgow brewing entrepreneur Petra Wetzel observed this week.
Talking to The Bottom Line about her WEST Brewery's new distribution deal with Tesco, she said: "It coincides with my birthday.
"Last year I got a seven-and-a-half tonne truck for my birthday.
"For my 40th I'm getting a listing with Tesco - hey ho, that's rock and roll to me!"
Trendy office space
GARY Watt, development manager at ISIS Waterfront Regeneration, was at pains to be specific about the past life of the building that is now home to The Whisky Bond office space in Glasgow.
"The building was built in the late fifties as a whisky bond," he explained to The Bottom Line.
"Its only other use was as a mushroom factory - of the legal kind!"
We have no idea what he could possibly have been referring to.
The youth lobby
THAT Tesco is listing WEST Brewery's St Mungo lager is a relief to Noah, the nine-year-old son of owner Petra Wetzel.
"Noah has been going on and on about it for a year and a half," she said. "He kept saying they really should stock St Mungo, it's a disgrace!"
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