Bank of England Governor Mervyn King certainly grabbed the limelight with his Churchillian language about the banking crisis and bailout. “Never in the field of financial endeavour has so much money been owed by so few to so many,” he told business leaders in Scotland — an appropriate location given the woes of Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland. King was also revelling in last weekend's defeat of Chelsea by his beloved Aston Villa. Referring to the stranglehold HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and RBS have on UK banking, the Guv'nor said: “As in the English Premier League, getting into the top four will not be easy for those outside it. But in both cases I hope greater competition will produce less rigidity in the composition of the top four.” Hmmm. Does this mean that, like Villa, we face having more foreign owners of our banks?

* Expect fireworks in Threadneedle Street: 5 November is when the Bank of England must decide whether to print yet more money to stimulate the economy or leave its so-called quantitative easing programme on hold. Perish the thought there is any similarity between the Bank burning through £175 billion on QE in the space of six months and a Guy Fawkes' Night bonfire.

* When Goldman Sachs announced plans to donate $200 million to charity at its results last week, critics condemned the move as an attempt to deflect attention from its mega-bonuses. But they didn't know what charities Goldman had picked. The 25-page list of organisations that the “vampire squid” bank gave cash to last year includes “dozens of elite private schools and fancy boarding schools”, according to blogging site Cityfile. And that includes $10,000 to the New York school which CEO Lloyd Blankfein sends his two sons to. Well, they say charity begins at home…

Fingers at the ready to spread the betting gospel

The trading staff at spread-betters City Index will do anything for publicity. A bunch of them donned “City gent” bowler hats, led by the singularly attractive “gent” Fiona Cincotta, to promote their latest gadget, City Index's new iPhone “App”, which allows clients to make live bets and on the phone. The concept is simple — punters “trade what they want, when they want, wherever they want”.

Sounds tempting — maybe too tempting after a few lager shandies...

* KPMG offices are participating in a charity denim day — but the accountancy firm just had to give workers a little bit more detail. It sent a missive around at least one office barking: “Please remember you are still in a professional environment and wear professional clothing with your jeans. Additionally, please wear jeans that are in good condition to obtain a clean, professional appearance.”

* A nice yarn about how to disarm the beancounters when they query travel expenses. BBC newspaper Ariel reports how years ago nature presenter David Attenborough claimed for some horses he bought while filming in Patagonia. When he returned, human resources wanted to know where the BBC's property was. “We ate them,” was his reply. That shut them up… although it transpired that animal-lover Attenborough's team hadn't really eaten them.

* The perils of Twitter: business consultant Sharon Hayes-Tucci has compiled “The Top 10 Mistakes Businesses Make On Twitter”. Avoiding spelling errors may seem obvious but when Hayes-Tucci checked 20 well-known corporate Twitter accounts, three had spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Other faux-pas include not understanding that reciprocity with clients is a must (if someone “follows” you, you must follow him or her). Mentioning products is acceptable “as long as it is not all you are doing. However, where a lot of people go wrong is employing monitoring methods to essentially (sic) spam people via Tweets. I've even seen large companies do this”.