Coutts & Co

1970: The smart interior of Coutts Bank on the Strand in London. The aristocratic bank
has an illustrious history and counts the Queen among its customers.

Where do you bank? I generally do not like to talk about money, for the very simple reason that I discuss it all day long. I have spent almost my entire working life in a bank of one kind or another, apart from a brief period as a London hack, including stint at Punch. Growing up, Coutts & Co was the bank. As you know, I went to school in England with the sons and daughters of English actresses, American diplomats, European bankers, Egyptian exiles, New York stockbrokers, Persian princesses, and the odd African tribal chieftan's son or two. A cosmopolitan group. For them, Coutts, established in 1692, was the financial institution of choice. A Coutts card or cheque book was a mark of status to be whipped out at the crucial moment at weekend haunts such as Hackett, Henry J Beans, The Australian, and Scalini. Mere mention of the Coutts name takes me back. Have things changed? I understand profit is down at Coutts, now the wealth management arm of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), due partly no doubt to the economic crisis. Fortunately I can not say the same thing about my own firm.