Why this message from Mo Farah got me to act …

Whilst reminding me of something Barclays Bank would think about – if  anyone in charge had the slightest scintilla of commonsense or decency

Mr. Antony Jenkins who runs Barclays Bank was paid £2.3 million last year.

More than any normal person could want or need.

But he is not normal. He is a banker, and busy saving the bank’s money, as I learned a few minutes ago via a message from Mo Farah, which made me sign a petition.

Mr. Farah’s message began:

“I was born in Somalia and have been very proud of the support the international community has given to the country in recent years. But we are now just one week away from a new humanitarian catastrophe.

In a matter of days Barclays bank plans to close its money transfer service to Somalia.

Then he tells you why this would be catastrophic for so many poor and desperate people.

But Mr. Jenkins is not poor and desperate. I imagine he is rich and greedy. What do you think?

Perhaps closing the service will boost his bulging pension fund a little.  Who knows?

But I wonder what it will cost the bank? Do any of these overpaid insensitive banking oafs, widely despised by almost all thinking people, ever give that sort of calculation a thought?

I hope you will sign the petition I signed. It only takes a second or two. And, if you are a Barclay’s customer you know they are bloody useless anyhow.

Why not try another bank? FirstDirect make it really easy.

Here is a link to the petition.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

2 Comments

  1. Rezbi

    Not surprising, considering Barclays closed the account of Ummah Welfare Trust a few years back. And the accounts of several other Islamic charities.

    I suspect it’s got something to do with being anti-Islam than anything else.

    1. Drayton

      I suspect it is a lot to do with the fact that all Islam is tarred with the brush of the manic fringe, which makers the bank’s job in sorting the sheep out from the goats hard – and gives them the chance to duck out of a tricky job.

      Interestingly a man told me the other day that if you give money to a Russian charity there’s a high chance it gets stolen by Putin’s larcenous crew.

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