Britain's top bankers rewarded with Birthday Honours...

[dutchman]

Bank of England governor Mervyn King has topped a City honours list that includes prominent bankers for the first time since the financial crisis.



King was awarded the highest order of chivalry, the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, which entitles the diehard Aston Villa fan to wear a mantle, a hat and a gold collar.

Previous Square Mile denizens to have received the honour, which is not given out every year, include former Bank director David Cooksey and former Centrica chairman Sir Michael Perry.

In a sign that bankers may be throwing off their pariah status, there was a gong for Standard Chartered John Peace, who will become a knight bachelor.

But there could be controversy around the award of the honour Commander of the British Empire (CBE) to David Mayhew, chairman of investment bank JP Morgan Cazenove.

Mayhew’s role in the 1986 Guinness scandal was questioned by the Department of Trade when he was an adviser at blue-blooded bank Cazenove, which has since merged with JP Morgan.

The scandal saw three prominent businessmen jailed for manipulating markets to inflate Guinness’ share price artificially, assisting the firm in its £2.7bn bid for Scottish drinks firm Distillers.

No charges were ever brought against Mayhew.

But a report by the Department of Trade & Industry a decade later accused Mayhew and Cazenove of deploying ‘a formidable reserve of purchase power to assist the brewer in its bid through an extensive programme of buying Guinness shares’.

[rebbonk]