WHERE does Marks & Spencer go next in its effort to recruit a chief executive to succeed Sir Stuart Rose?

Last week's investor day was a spectacular flop as the shares fell 4%, making the store chain the biggest FTSE 100 faller on the day. That was after the City had had the chance to hear presentations from the three internal candidates, Ian Dyson, John Dixon and Kate Bostock (although it was not billed as a beauty parade as such, of course). Now speculation is focusing again outside M&S on Justin King and Andy Bond. While the Sainsbury's and Asda chiefs, respectively, have ruled themselves out of the running, their denials of interest weren't that strong — and besides, circumstances change. Bond's profile has been raised with a PR campaign in which he made his speech about the new era of “democratic consumerism”. It's not gone unnoticed in the City that nowhere prides itself more on being the choice of the concerned, discerning middle classes than M&S and such language sits nicely with the new, touchy feely, “Plan A” company...

* ONE other name on the City wish-lists in relation to the M&S job: Marc Bolland of Morrison's.

More bad news for bankers

BANKERS may feel they have got a bad name in the credit crunch but, many will say, they probably deserve it. And a survey of press cuttings by legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell vindicates that view.

It claims more than 56% of reported High Court appearances by FTSE 100 companies between July 2008 and 2009 involved financial services companies. “While financial services companies make up only 19% of the FTSE 100, they accounted for nearly one in two of all cases involving the UK's largest companies,” says S&M.

Can Penelope make finance sexy again?

SO gorgeous, pouting Spanish siren Penélope Cruz is to be a banker in the upcoming Sex and the City movie sequel. She was spotted on set as a mega-bucks banker, wearing a tight black dress. City Spy will pay close attention to the credits to discover which bank may be behind this blatant attempt to make banking sexier...

* HAPPY news. London's continuing claim to be a major world financial centre has received the thumbs-up from the Wall Street Journal, which is hosting a two-day conference on the “future of finance” in a Sussex hotel in early December. Among the speakers are BarCap boss Bob Diamond, Goldman Sachs' Richard Gnodde, Deutsche's Anshu Jain, Icap's Michael Spencer, President Obama's economics guru Paul Volcker, billionaire George Soros and Chancellor Alistair Darling. No Tory speaker is billed yet. But given the fact that the Journal's owner Rupert Murdoch has switched support from Labour to Conservative, can an invitation to David Cameron be far behind?

* AT 7am on Friday, Lloyds Banking Group announces the sale of its 218-branch estate agencies business for a paltry £1 — at least £10 million less than analysts expected, causing them to accuse the bank of selling out too easily and missing opportunities for future growth. At 9am, Lloyds' consumer arm, Lloyds TSB, issues a press release: “UK businesses sleepwalking' towards recovery — many businesses have not considered the need to plan for a return to growth.” It is even “staging nationwide roadshows to help businesses understand the steps they need to take” to bounce back. Maybe best to sort itself out first?

* A LITTLE bird tells City Spy that HBOS may have a not-so-little difficulty with homes it repossessed from luckless customers by bringing the proceedings in the courts in the name of “Bank of Scotland Plc” some time after Bank of Scotland ceased to exist as a body corporate or be regulated, registered and authorised by the Financial Services Authority... It's to be hoped this doesn't mean substantial compensation will have to be forked out...