The Jobbing System of the London Stock Exchange: An Oral History
Ref.No.:  37	Playback No.:

Interviewee's surname: Verey	Title:  Mr
Interviewee's forenames: Michael John
Date of birth:  12 October 1912       Sex:  Male

Date(s) of recording:  22 August 1990
Location of interview:  Home
Name of interviewer:   Bernard Attard
Type of recorder:   Marantz CP 430
Total no.-of tapes:      2   Speed:
Type of tape:    TDK AR-60    Noise reduction:    DBX
Mono or stereo:   stereo     Original or copy:  Copy
Additional material:  Copyright/Clearance: CMH; no restrictions

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

Tape 1, Side 1

Birth in London in 1912; father a solicitor; education; through father obtains a job with Helbert Wagg in 1934; description of Helbert Wagg's business; specialisation in takeovers, mergers and investment; establishes first corporate finance department in 1946; description of Wagg in 1930s; following Second World War Wagg starts developing pension fund business; Michael Verey's career with Wagg; organisation of dealing at Wagg; relationship between Wagg and brokers; small fee paid to Wagg during British Aluminium takeover compared to fees paid to brokers; involvement of Wagg partners in investment decisions; sources of information used by Wagg; attitude of clients to their funds under management; responsibility of these clients for short-termism; decline in reputation of the City; Wagg does not churn its funds; recollections of the dealing department; background of people in the dealing department; works for a time in the box of Rowe & Pitman; Waggs' fund management business pre-war; Wagg partners sit on the boards of several funds.

Tape 1, side 2

Fund management business pre-war; reasons for becoming involved in pension fund business; approach to managing funds; brokers and jobbers frightened by large deals; Wagg tough about prices at which it dealt; main brokers that Wagg dealt with; other Banks involved in investment management; organisation of investment management; basis -used for investment decisions; approach to issuing stock; significance of brokers' advice; method of doing placings; role of brokers and jobbers in underwriting; seldom had contact with jobbers; Dick Wilkins came to lunch; kind of things jobbers would discuss with merchant banks; friendships with jobbers; merchant banks' dissatisfaction with the level of commission they were being charged; establishment of Ariel; banks who supported Ariel; attitude of the Stock Exchange; contacts with Stock Exchange Chairman; conservatism of the Stock Exchange; institutions and merchant banks beginning to do business outside the Stock Exchange; American banks not particularly significant; establishment of Ariel; failure of banks to really use it; winding down of Ariel.

Tape 2, side 1

Banks have greater standing than Stock Exchange; reasons for failure of Ariel; feelings generally about the service provided by the Stock Exchange; occasions when banks dealt direct with the institutions; attitude of jobbers to dealing with institutions; attitude to splitting orders; best way of wrecking the price of a share; example of syndicate formed to stimulate the market in the shares of the de-nationalised steel company, Stewart & Lloyds; rarity of such occurrences; contact between fund managers and jobbers; eg. of fund managers who abused their positions; attitude to separation of capacities; apart from some individuals, jobbers did not have much clout in the City.