Alan Yarrow responds to an article by Philip Augar in the Financial Times on Wednesday 12 November:

Sir,

Philip Augar’s FT piece on forex and other banking scandals yesterday (12/11/14) re-tells a sorry tale: that some City workers played fast and loose. The issue is behaviour, and not putting the client first. As the new Lord Mayor – and someone whose career has been committed to keeping standards of behaviour high – it is my job to speak not only for the City, but also to it. As I told a City audience (and the Prime Minister, judges and regulators) on Monday, people taking profit and not taking risk – dumping that on the client and the taxpayer – is unacceptable. This is theft. If we lose trust in the marketplace, it impacts on volumes and true price discovery – and therefore impacts on the efficiency of the market. The consumer is the ultimate victim. It’s in all our interests to keep markets clean.

Alan Yarrow, Lord Mayor of the City of London, Mansion House, EC4