City bigwigs urged to help save businesses from coronavirus collapse
Dozens of the City’s most high-profile denizens have been urged to offer their support to a taskforce that will prop up businesses at risk of collapse due to the coronavirus crisis.
A group of more than 40 grandees were on Thursday asked to offer assistance pro bono on everything from legal advice to asset management.
Banks, law firms, asset managers and auditors have all been urged to pitch in with ways to rescue British firms from collapse, while at least 10 high-profile figures will be chosen to represent different sectors in the coming days.
The new taskforce, dubbed the recapitalisation group, will be led by Sir Adrian Montague, chairman of FTSE 100 insurance giant Aviva. The efforts are being coordinated by industry body TheCityUK.
Omar Ali, UK financial services managing partner, will lead the technical committee of the group, which held its first meeting last week.
“There’s a societal need to get this fixed,” one insider told the Sunday Telegraph, which first reported the approach. “All of the City has been invited to take part. Everyone recognises that they have to get involved.”
Industry figures are expected to prepare their pitches over Easter weekend, with the successful candidates picked next week.
Separately it emerged that the chancellor’s former Goldman Sachs boss Richard Sharp has been tapped for a key Treasury post.
Sharp, who spent more than two decades at the US banking giant, will become a strategic adviser to Rishi Sunak, Sky News reported.