Bankers in denial, part 987. Here's Chris Kyle, Royal Bank of Scotland's global banking and markets chief financial officer, talking at a conference about government plans to (maybe) force banks to reveal what they pay their top staff: “I don't see why the banking industry should be any different to any other industry.

“If there is a greater push for wider disclosure for everybody then that seems appropriate but I don't see why banks should be singled out.”

Kyle is surely only playing at being this dumb. Of course, he really understands why banks are under more scrutiny than any other industry — after all, he's one of those financial geniuses who are so valuable, so irreplaceable, that they must be paid massive amounts of money no matter what the circumstances, no matter what massive bet they just got spectacularly wrong.

He's perfectly aware: his employer is now 84%-owned by the taxpayer; RBS only continues to exist thanks to the public purse; we pay his wages and therefore think we should be told what they are; and that he and his kind will be a tax on the rest of us for years to come. He knows that. He just can't bring himself to say it in public.

Bless.

* A demob-happy Michael Grade, reviewing his time running ITV, writes in The Observer: “Three years down the line, we still don't have a decision on Sky's stake in ITV.” Grade is right to complain. It is astonishing that regulators — and Sky's canny legal team — have taken this long without reaching a decision about Sky's 17.9% stake. Sky has repeatedly contested rulings that the broadcaster should sell down the shareholding. Three Appeal Court judges finally heard the latest challenge over three days at the end of last month. But at the time of writing, the parties are still waiting
for the judges' decision. At current prices, Sky is sitting on a paper loss of around £550 million on its ITV shares.

Goldman's gifts are on loan

JUST how generous is Goldman Sachs' much trumpeted $500 million (£303 million) initiative to help US small businesses? Rather than hand out the money directly to struggling businesses, it turns out that much of the dosh is destined for financial education and development programmes, many of which are run by charities. That in turn means hefty charitable tax deductions for Goldman. As for the cash that does reach the recession-hit entrepreneur it's likely to be paid as a loan and Goldman would like it back, with interest.

So, say those who remain sceptical of Goldman boss Lloyd Blankfein's claim to be doing God's work, the final bill to the bank could be as little as $150 million, instead of $500 million. Goldman won't comment on specific numbers but defends the scheme as providing a fillip to small businesses, while creating “a modest economic return” for the bank. City Spy is lost for words.

* Only around six reporters were admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Centre in Westminster for the opening day of the Chilcott Inquiry into the Iraq war, leaving the best part of 60 journalists left to follow events from outside. It was all the more odd given that national newspapers were asked to submit a list of up to five reporters for accreditation. Among those taking copious notes was Guardian security correspondent Richard Norton-Taylor, who has written two plays for the Tricycle Theatre based on the Bloody Sunday inquiry and the imagined trial of Tony Blair. Could a Chilcott play be in the offing?

Mandelson salutes Fleet Street's finest

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson will be the star attraction at the British Journalism Review's reception to celebrate the journal's 20th birthday in Westminster tomorrow. Other political luminaries and many of Fleet Street's finest are expected to turn out to wish Happy Birthday to what is an increasingly rare outlet for intelligent media coverage — at a time when many other titles from Media Week to Press Gazette have faced drastic cuts. Mandelson is famed for being a spinner par excellence but he also had a short-lived sideline in journalism at The People where he penned what was memorably described as “the only column written by more people than read it”.

* THE Bischoff banking dynasty seems in good shape. Christopher, son of Sir Win, chairman of Lloyds Banking Group, has been made a Goldman Sachs managing director — one rung off the elite partnership pool.