Matt Barratt, the new chief executive of Barclays Bank, is every PR department's dream. He comes with a reputation as a dashing socialite. He likes late nights, fine wines (very rare for a Canadian) and even finer ladies. Just to add the icing on the cake, he is a very successful banker and an accomplished deal maker. I'm not sure, however, about that moustache. Barratt's public relations advisers should show him photographs of David Robins, the chief executive of ING Barings, before and after the removal of his moustache. The improvement is quite remarkable.

Since he arrived late last year, Barratt, normally the consummate showman, laid so low that I wondered whether he had been having second thoughts about Barclays and had scarpered back to Toronto. While the whole financial world yawned over the fight for NatWest, Barratt was given a welcome breathing space and he remained only slightly more visible than Banquo's ghost in Macbeth.