Prince William Coveted by Banks, But Coutts gets the Worst Odds

GoldFinger

27 June 2005

Royalty and the City of London have never had a particularly close relationship. On the whole, members of the British royalty family may be content to give some of the City’s finest pedigree institutions their money to manage, but they would never want to dirty their hands by actually working for a bank! But is this about the change with the announcement that Prince William—the second in line for the throne—is to spend a month this autumn working for a bank in London? The prince has yet to decide which institution he plans to spend his month at, but this has not stopped bookmakers to accept bets on where William will end up at. City bookmaker Cantor Index has opened a book and so far the favourite is Merrill Lynch at 5/4, because William’s friend Edward Van Cutsem works there. JP Morgan Cazenove is a non-runner, despite being earlier in the frame. 3-1 is Barclays Capital; 4-1 is Schroders; 8-1 is Barclays Private Bank; 16-1 is Goldman Sachs, and the outside runner is Coutts at 25-1. Andy Garrood, head of market making at Cantor told GoldFinger that anyone is welcome to suggest other banks and Cantor will draw up the odds. Insiders, now is your chance!