Business is tough, now people are trying to travel but at much lower cost. (In total) business travel dropped by 12 percent from peak to trough, |
Executives might not want to make cuts in travel budgets, but businesses are insisting on it. |
In London (the worst) probably is over. The London economy, in our estimates, declined at end of last year and has actually picked up since then, ... For the rest of the U.K., I think probably the worst period is the first half of this year. |
Last year was the bounce-back year and this year is the consolidation year. |
The stock markets have been doing reasonably well and there's been a big hike in merger activity over the past couple of years that created a huge amount of fee income. There's also been a move toward the higher fee earning elements. |
Those in the metals markets will have noticed the push into metals and I think we'll see more of that. |