Chartered Accountants’ Reception and Talk by the Lord Mayor

2nd May 2018

Chartered Accountants' Hall

Tucked away, just off Moorgate, is the Chartered Accountants' Hall; it is the home of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The Hall is a Grade II listed building and is one of the City’s hidden masterpieces. Having worked nearby, I had no idea of its existence. The annual "True & Fair" lecture was given by the Lord Mayor, Charles Bowman, who happens to be an accountant, in a large state of the art conference hall. He opened by saying that he just was 24 weeks and 5 days into his mayoralty. A major theme of his year was the rebuilding of trust. He referred to the Pan Livery Collaboration project and remarked that the City's reputation was at best unknown and at worst unfair. For many centuries, commerce in the City had been based on trust and he referred to a trade with Italian merchants in 1210 which had been dependant upon the trust that a debt would be repaid. The Lord Mayor, added that we should be concerned that the level of trust in the City had continued to fall since the crisis of 2008. Building trust should be the number one priority of all CEOs. Trust boils down to personal responsibility such as taxation and how the issue of pay is addressed. He asked the audience to complete the Lord Mayor's online questionnaire on the Business of Trust http://bit.ly/2Ew9OtG and to follow his Tweets at @citylordmayor #businessoftrust #trust

It was a thought provoking lecture.