Ask any of London’s famous black-cab drivers which investment bank they think is best and chances are they will vote for Deutsche Bank.
Why Deutsche? Because it is the biggest user of taxis in the City.
According to one cab driver, Deutsche Bank’s London offices regularly go through more than 100 cabs every 15 minutes after 9pm.
Although number two-ranked Goldman Sachs uses almost as many a day as Deutsche, taxi drivers say working for Deutsche is much better. “Goldman are a bit tight,” explains one cabbie. “They won’t let you leave the meter running while you wait and they drive a much harder bargain with the taxi companies. They aren’t so mean at Deutsche.”
The investment banks in Canary Wharf, which include Citigroup, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Lehman and Morgan Stanley, are all small potatoes in the cabbies’ books. The biggest user of cabs in Canary Wharf is apparently law firm Clifford Chance.