New Year Honours snub for bankers

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 03:25 EDT, 31 December 2009

Britain's profligate bankers have been snubbed for the second year running in the New Year Honours List, as an array of gongs were handed out to civil servants responsible for mopping up the City's mess.

Shunned: Bankers have once again been ignored in the New Years Honours List

Former HSBC retail banking chief Dyfrig John is the sole banker to pick up an award, after being made a CBE. John started with the then Midland Bank as a management trainee in 1971 and spent his whole career at the lender before retiring in March.

HSBC chairman Stephen Green described John's contribution to the bank as 'immeasurable'. He was credited with reshaping the company's UK branch network.

But leaving aside John's award, it is the second year that the City's 'masters of the universe' have been left out in the cold in the honours season.

The government has, again, preferred to bestow awards on mandarins who are struggling to repair the damage wrought by the financial system.

Angela Rees, assistant head of debt management and banking at HM Revenue & Customs, receives an MBE; while Loretta Minghella, chief executive of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, gets an OBE.

Paul Boyle, former chief of the Financial Reporting Council, also receives an OBE; while Lawrence Churchill, chairman of the Pension Protection Fund, is awarded a CBE.

Business leaders picking up honours include Cable & Wireless chairman Richard Lapthorne, who is knighted for services to telecoms; Aggreko chief executive Rupert Soames gets an OBE; Chemring chief executive Dr David Price is rewarded with a CBE; and lingerie entrepreneur Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo, gets an OBE.