So it's goodbye to the name of Strauss Turnbull. The call to the knacker's yard from the uncompromising French bosses at Société Générale surprised no-one. Relationships between the two house had long been fraught. SocGen probably thought that Strauss Turnbull was a better firm than it proved to be. When the French found out that it had been sold a pup it was only a matter of time before the tumbrels were rolled out.
But Strauss Turnbull wasn't always a basket case. A Cazenove it never was, but the firm deserves its place in City history for its role in establishing the Eurobond market in London which then became the multi-trillion dollar international capital market and spawned the success of many associated businesses.
What was the secret of Strauss Turnbull's success? It was not an ordinary house flaky perhaps but conventional never. At one time in the 1960s, several of the senior partners were suspended by the stock exchange when they were all on their summer holidays in the south of France and the Bahamas. The difference of opinion was said to involve bond-washing.
Strauss Turnbull should have been awarded a medal for religious indiscrimination and tolerance.