Decency over debauchery at London’s bank parties

With an ever-lengthening list of scandals and a number of banks still reliant on the public purse, the 2013 Christmas party season for London’s financiers is about decency over debauchery.

Big festive bashes are being eschewed for fear of further riling public opinion. Some events are being switched to January, when it’s cheaper. Some banks are opting for carol concerts to raise money for charity, while at others it will be prosecco rather than champagne that is flowing, say event organisers and bankers.

Before the 2008 global financial crisis, a specially erected marquee in London’s Canary Wharf offered Christmas parties with sit-down dinner, free-flowing champagne, and a band on stilts for banks such as HSBC and Lehman Brothers.

Five years later, Lehman is no longer and parties for thousands of employees are rare. Instead, London’s financial services firms are chipping in “modest” sums — of between £20 and £50 (€23 and €60) — per head for Christmas dos, or employees are funding their own celebrations.

“There’s definitely been a real shift change since 2009, when the recession really hit. There’s so much awareness among our clients about what is decent,” said Ruth Lawton-Owen, sales and marketing director for event firms Blue Strawberry and Table Talk, which counts major banks and investment houses among its corporate clients.

HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, declined to comment on how its staff will celebrate this year.

Entertainment budgets are often now largely dedicated to clients and parties must have a clear business rationale.

Events commonly now take place in January, when companies can negotiate better deals, Ms Lawton-Owen said.

“Where there would be champagne and a full open bar, people are having prosecco or a mulled wine — it’s less lavish... without the sense of unbridled opulence than there perhaps was previously.”

Christmas parties are not off the menu entirely, however, and a pickup in Britain’s economy has seen some firms loosen the purse strings to reward employees.

Simon Lockwood, creative director at The Brewery, a City of London venue whose main clients come from the technology, media, financial, and legal industries, said there had been a significant jump in the number of parties held this year.

These events are different than in pre-crisis days — street style food stalls have replaced sit-down dinners — and guests see them as a treat rather than a right, he added.

“It’s not something that’s taken for granted any more. People know that they are having a party because the company is doing better, and because of how hard they have worked.

“We don’t anticipate it [Christmas party business] ever to recover to the levels of 2006... It will never reach those levels again because the world is a different place now.”