BANKS IN London are expanding curbs on entertainment, with some adding bans on buying clients shots and expensing pricey bottle services for tables at nightclubs.
In addition to putting an end to buying clients shots of booze, one sent around a memo imposing a curfew on entertaining, according to GQ Employment Law. The London-based labour law specialist declined to identify the firm.
“Investment banks long ago banned employees from entertaining clients in strip clubs,” Paul Quain, a partner, said yesterday. “They are clamping down on boozy and rowdy client entertainment.”
Banks globally are curbing treats, personal dealing and how employees talk to counterparts at other firms after being fined billions of dollars for manipulating benchmark interest rates.
Barclays banned staff this year from giving or receiving gifts and entertainment from brokers, and Goldman Sachs Group barred investment bankers from trading individual stocks and bonds, a person with knowledge of the matter said last month.
Other restrictions banks have imposed recently include midnight curfews for client entertainment – with junior staff, fun has to wrap up by 10pm – and bans on social media and dating colleagues, according to the law firm.
“It should have a positive impact on the bottom line. A sober staff member is less likely to make an error of judgment, in conversation with a client on a night out or on the trading floor.” – Bloomberg