Dinner in the 1688 Room at Lloyds of London with the Financial Services Club Thursday 5th December

I was invited by Freeman Chris Skinner to attend the Financial Services Club Keynote Dinner at Lloyds. The evening was preceded by a superb tour of the Trading Floor, at the end of which I departed with a copy of the manifest and insurance certificate for the Titanic! As far as great brands go you cannot really beat Lloyds of London at One Lime Street.  The speaker for the evening was Gottfried Leibbrandt, CEO of SWIFT. It is a remarkable organisation and Gottfried updated us remarkably well, talking about the company's future strategic direction.  For the uninitiated, SWIFT is a member-owned cooperative through which the financial world conducts its business operations with speed, certainty and confidence. SWIFT copes daily with 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in 212 countries, exchanging millions of standardised financial messages. This activity involves the secure exchange of proprietary data while ensuring its confidentiality and integrity. SWIFT provides the proprietary communications platform, products and services that allows their customers to connect and exchange financial information securely and reliably. It also acts as a catalyst to brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and consider solutions to issues of mutual interest. Headquartered in Belgium there are offices in the world's major financial centres and developing markets. SWIFT does not hold funds nor does it manage accounts on behalf of customers, nor does it store financial information on an on-going basis. The dinner was very agreeable and it is always good to be among interesting and diverse groups within in the City.  More to the point Gottfried was formerly the organisation's Head of Marketing and could potentially be a Marketor!