Despite what HSBC says, banking can be too exciting

HSBC’S global head of sponsorhip, Giles Morgan, explains to BBC sports broadcaster John Inverdale in City AM why banks get behind sporting events.

“Sponsorship adds colour to a brand, especially to a sector that is perhaps intrinsically not very exciting,” Morgan burbles.

Not exciting? But what about HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm, which, as we recently learned, was once in the habit of handing over suitcases full of cash to foreign depositors, with no questions asked? Sounds pretty “exciting” to Spy. Yet the HSBC tax-avoidance scandal must have slipped Inverdale’s mind because he doesn’t bring it up once in the interview. Or perhaps he was wearing the “rosec*nted glasses” he referred to in a live radio interview at Cheltenham last month.

However, he does find space to tell us Morgan can “work a room with the dexterity of a member of the royal family”.

“BACK of the net!” cried Alan Partridge. Well, through it anyway. Spy was on fine form as the hacks triumphed over the flacks at a City journos v PRs netball match. The netball and footie matches, sponsored by IG and EY, showed journalism’s strength (literally, two flacks were nearly hospitalised) in the face of the dastardly dark arts of public relations, providing a beacon of hope for those who believe the spinners have taken over. Oh, and it raised £8500 for children’s cancer charity Rays of Hope, which is perhaps more important.